Dawning
by Briannakin
Summary: Luke Skywalker wakes from four years in a coma to find his wife alive, yet his life has been changed forever. A re-post from The Jedi Council Forums.
1. Prologue

**Title: Dawning**

**Author: Briannakin **

**Timeframe: 44 ABY**

**Characters: Luke, Mara, Ben, Han, Leia, Jaina and the rest of the gang with a few OC's**

**Genre: AU, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Angst**

**Notes: Because of the truncation issue over on the Jedi Council boards, many people have been bugging me for this fic, so I decided to revamp it and repost it there as well as here too.**

Prologue

Luke Skywalker, Grand Master of the Jedi Order swept high with his green blade. Abeloth – his opponent – slashed at him with her tentacles, pushing Luke back towards the edge of the cliff.

"You will die," the… _thing_ grunted, beginning a series of short, quick blows, making the Grand Master retreat further. The suns beat down on his black robed back, making him sweat more. He was not afraid to die. He had nothing to live for now, which made him a formidable opponent.

Ben was dead.

Abeloth had killed him in cold blood.

"As long as you come with me, I don't care." He couldn't believe he was wasting his breath speaking to her. He edge closer to the precipice. His heels were hanging off now.

"That is unacceptable." With a tentacle, she sliced off his arm, she them moved to consume him.

While she had been busy with his other arm, Luke had retrieved a thermal detonator from his pocket.

As she absorbed him, he detonated the device.

. . .

Everything went dark.

Luke woke from the darkness some time later. He wasn't sure how much time had passed: moments felt like days or days; like moments, Luke realized that it had all been a dream.

Hadn't it?

But Luke couldn't recall exactly what had been a dream. The past day? The past week? The past year?

He could not open his eyes. He tried to move something. ANYTHING! But his body did not respond. He felt dizzy and like he was encased in something.

_Am I dead?_ Maybe it hadn't been a dream. Maybe life just seemed like a dream now that he was dead. It made sense to him.

But Luke then realized that he was still breathing, but not on his own. Tubes had been forced down his airways and air was being pumped in and out. And there were incessant beeping noises.

No, death couldn't be this uncomfortable. He wasn't in much pain, but his muscles and joints simply ached, a tremendous amount.

He tried to reach out with the Force, but he was so tired, he just wanted to sleep.

He tried to talk, to ask if anyone was there, but he gagged on the tubes.

He then heard the most beautiful voice ever. The voice of an angel.

"Farmboy?"

Yup. He was dead.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey guys. Just a short note. When I started this revamp a few days ago, my original intention was to fix up my writing, perhaps add and rearrange a few scenes, but not to do any major re-write or anything. Then I got into it and realized how much I love this story. Originally when I wrote this fic, I had several plans for it. At the time I picked the one I could execute the best. Now as I'm doing this revamp or whatever you want to call it, I've decided to do something else, so if you read Dawning over on TFN, don't be expecting the same thing (though I still have the original if you want it). Much of the stuff is staying the same, so hopefully you will all get themes I achieved in the original, only better done.**

Chapter 1

Mara Jade Skywalker sat beside her husband's bedside. Her sock-clad feet were up on the edge of the medcenter bed and a datapad was in her hands. She was half-heartedly doing some stupid report.

Mara liked doing her work as co-Grand Master in Luke's medcenter room. It was quiet and far away from her other co-Grand master: Corran Horn. He wouldn't annoy her here, no one would. Coran was nice and a great Jedi to work with, but his Corellian personality made her want to drive her head through a wall sometimes, or better yet, drive his head through a wall. There were days when she wanted to castrate him, but then Mirax Horn, his wife, probably wouldn't be too pleased with her if she did.

Mara smirked at the thought.

But doing her work in here also let her be with her husband for a few hours out of each day. The other Jedi worried about her. But he was still her husband and she still wanted to spend time with him, even if he wasn't really there. She knew what they all said behind her back: she was delusional, borderline crazy in her hopes that Luke would one day wake. Personally, she agreed with them. Deep down, she knew he would never come back to her. It had been four years after all; he wasn't coming back. He wasn't in a vegetative state because he dreamed, a lot and very vividly. Brain wave monitors showed his brain activity. Apparently, he was all there, he just couldn't wake up.

Luke lay there, like he had for the past one-thousand-four-hundred-and-some-odd days, on his special form-air foam bed to prevent bed sores. He didn't look like he was at piece. He looked like he was suffering. Tubes ran into and out of his mouth, nose and left hand, which was above the white blanket and resting on his stomach. His right arm was under the covers. His prosthetic hand had suffered too much damage in the battle and no one saw the point of re-attaching a new one. More tubes, along with metres of wires, flowed out from underneath the blankets and into machines or bags of fluid. He wore nothing but a pair of shorts, but no one but her and the healers knew this, since he was always covered up and no one else was allowed in here.

Security was tight, to say the least.

**_'Am I dead?'_**

Luke's voice rang clear inside her head.

She rubbed her eyes. It had been a long, hard day, it shouldn't be a surprise that she now was hearing voices. Great. She was so tired, her mind was talking to her in Luke's voice.

Mara took her feet off the bed, put on her boots and started packing up her things. She needed some rest.

Then she heard gags, like someone was choking, or trying to talk with something in their mouth and throat.

She watched in amazement as Luke's lips, neck and jaw twitched.

"Farmboy?"

She then shook her head and rubbed her eyes again as she stood. "Oh, Skywalker," she said to both the body on the bed and herself. "I've finally lost my mind. Yup. After four long years without her husband, the great Mara Jade Skywalker has finally lost her mind," she practically sang. She bent over and kissed his forehead. "The rest of the council is right," she muttered, "Maybe I should stop coming around here every day. Maybe I should think about letting you go." She picked up her bag and left.

. . .

Thoughts ran through Luke's head. _Four years? Have I been dreaming for four years? Coma? Probably. That would put me in a coma just before Mara died. Wait, I was in a coma. That would mean she died in my dreams. That would mean Mara is alive. MARA YOU'RE ALIVE!_ He could feel his heart flutter as the thought hit him.

Then he felt her breath on his face and her lips on his forehead. He could have created a star using the Force he was so happy. He just might, just for her.

Then he heard her leaving, he had to stop her.

**_'Mara! Stop! It's me, Luke, Skywalker, Farmboy, whatever you want to call me, just come back, please! I love you!'_** he sent to her through their Force bond.

He then realized that he needed to do something else to make her realize that she wasn't just imagining things. He was too weak to do much with the Force, plus he still couldn't open his eyes to see what he had to work with.

_Just do something, Luke, damn it, just do SOMETHING and do it quick, she's leaving,_ he told himself.

He tried to move his body, any part of his body would work, but it would not respond. Nothing would respond.

. . ..

Mara turned around just before activating the door controls to look at Luke once again. If she only focused on his closed eyes and on his sandy hair, he looked as if he was only asleep. She could almost imagine him rolling over, opening those big blue eyes of his and asking her why she wasn't in bed with him.

Yet she couldn't do it. She couldn't imagine him waking up.

Yes, maybe it was time to give up hope. Luke wasn't going to wake.

. . .

She was gone.

Luke was stunned. He had apparently woken after four years in a coma and she had left him and he could do nothing to get her back. He had to think of something. But sleep was closing in on him and he could do nothing to stop it.

. . .

With a sigh, Mara flopped onto her bed with the flimsiplast copy of Luke's last will and testament. She had gone over this damned document with a fine tooth comb many times, once with Nawara Ven – Luke's lawyer – Leia, Han and Ben all present, trying to figure what Luke would have wanted. In the end, the document was clear – it was all up to Mara and Ben on what to do.

Mara knew her son had given up hope long ago that his father would ever wake. He had wanted to 'pull the plug' six months into this hell.

Composing herself, she went to the comm-station in her apartment and selected Ben from the list. A new planet – Kesh – had been found a year ago. Ben and a couple of other young Jedi knights were there helping the locals – the Keshi - become a part of the galactic system.

Ben's image in blue appeared. He had grown into a handsome man – taking most of his looks from his father, with just a hint of her and his grandfather in his face, and height. "Hey Mom," he greeted her with a smile. "Are you comm-ing me as my mom or as the Grand Master?"

"As your mother. We have to talk about your father."

A look of surprize, then concern crossed his face. "Is everything alright? He doesn't have an infection, does he?"

"No, nothing has changed. That's why I've called you. I think I might be ready to let him be at peace."

"Why now, Mom?" Mara knew Ben was both worried and curious.

"I know he's not coming back. I was going crazy thinking he was. It's better for all of us if we let him go. I'll be forced to move on and I want to know that he is in the neitherworld." No one knew if Luke had gotten to the neitherworld with his body still tied to life. Mara believed that he hadn't and that fact had been killing the rational part of her. Maybe if he was allowed to finally cross over, she would be able to get a final goodbye.

"Alright, so it's not just for me?"

"No, it's not."

"Okay. Do you want me to come back early?"

"No," she replied. "You're only gone for another month. I need that month to prepare."

"Alright. Have you told Aunt Leia yet?"

"No, and I'm not looking forward to it," she groaned.

"You have fun with that," he replied sarcastically.

"Thanks, ungrateful offspring," she replied sarcastically.

. . .

Luke slowly woke again. He quickly remembered where he was and what had happened. What _had_ happened? His mind was so foggy that he couldn't figure out when exactly he had gone into a coma. All he knew was Mara was alive.

And if Mara was alive, that meant Ben was probably alive.

Ben had to be alive.

Ben's death had destroyed him in his dream. He had to be alive and well now. Luke had to see his son again. Emotion overwhelmed Luke and he began to cry.

He felt his tears running down his face. His body tried to sob, but couldn't, which made his body panic and start to choke. His body wanted to breathe on its own, yet the tubes wouldn't let it. All he wanted to do was yank everything out of him and go run to Mara and Ben. Yet he couldn't move a finger. He wanted to scream in frustration.

Alarms started to scream. He heard footsteps running. At least someone was coming.

. . .

Mara grunted as her comm-link went off just as she was falling asleep. "Coran is supposed to be the Grand Master on-call in the AM hours," she grumbled before picking it up. "Master Jade Skywalker."

"Mara?" She recognized the low yet feminine voice of Cilghal. "Something is wrong with Luke. You are going to want to get down here."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mara hurried down the med-center hallway. Something was wrong with Luke. Cilghal, who was thankfully the healer on-call tonight, had no idea what. She wanted Mara to come see him to find out if she could use her bond with Luke to help them. Thing was, Mara had closed down their bond years ago. It had been like a comm line – alive on her end but all she received from Luke was a busy signal. It had disturbed her greatly, so she had simply 'hung up'.

She entered the room to see Cilghal holding a scanner to Luke chest. "Mara, I'm sorry. We know the machines would only sustain him for so long. I think this might be it."

Mara paid no attention to the healer. She was staring at the lines of tears running down his cheeks. "He's been crying."

"That's why I wanted you down here." Luke's case had been classified by Cilghal and all other medical professionals as unique, which. Cilghal was frank. "I have no idea what is going on."

Mara nodded. "Luke used to talk in his sleep. Could this crying be like that?"

"It's possible. I've also heard of read of a case in a medical journal of a man who was in a 26 year-long coma. He went from a state of total unconsciousness to a state of semi-consciousness for a few hours before dying. It is still unknown why."

Mara gulped. She thought she was ready for this, but she wasn't. "Okay. I'm going to try to reach him… to see what state he's in." She reached for one hand, holding it tight. She brushed her fingertips though his hair. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her shields.

Luke had been vaguely aware of someone coming into the room. He didn't care. All he wanted was Mara or Ben. Then, a few minutes later, he had realized that she was near and felt someone gingerly taking his hand.

He felt their bond open.

'_**Mara.'**_

"Luke? Luke? Can you hear me?"

His condition must have been pretty serious if she was calling him 'Luke'.

'_**Yes, my love.'**_

There was... laughing? Crying? Both?

He certainly felt like doing both.

"Oh, Luke." It was definitely a mixture of both. He felt her weight as she sat on the edge of the bed. He felt the warmth of her hand in his and felt her kisses on his forehead and on his unshaven, stubbly cheeks. And he felt her tears, or were tears more of those his?

_**'Oh, Mara. Oh, my Mara, my love.'**_

"Mara? What is going on?" Luke heard the healer. She clearly confused with Mara's uncharacteristic hysteria.

"Luke is awake!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, he's talking to me through our bond. And look at his brainwaves."

"Well. I'll be. Luke can you move anything?"

'**No, but I think I can breathe on my own.'** He tried, which caused him to start choking again.

"Luke, stop, please," she gently rebuked him. "He can't move, but he thinks he can breathe."

"Okay, Luke. I'll take you off the ventilator, but it will be extremely uncomfortable while it's coming out, so I need you to stay calm. When it is out, you need to try to take slow, deep breaths."

He felt the tube starting to move and he felt like he was choking. He involuntary gagged and tried to breathe. His body panicked.

"Calm down, Luke," Mara said in a gentle, but firm tone. She squeezed his hand again and held the top of his head with her other hand. "It's almost out."

His throat seemed to listen to her just as the tube was pulled out. It took him a few tense seconds to remember how to expand his diaphragm, but he eventually did and that started the involuntary process of breathing calmly and slowly, even if it wasn't as deep as he would have liked.

He was exhausted from the short struggle, but he needed to say something.

* * *

"Mara." The word was more like a breath made to sound like her name. It was so quiet, a whisper was louder.

Mara smiled. It was such a relief to hear his voice. "Hush, Luke. Focus on breathing," she chided.

After a few moments, he decided to ignore her. "Water?" he breathed, almost inaudibly. She could tell that he was exhausted.

"I told you to hush. Do I have to tell you to shut up already?" She looked at Cilghal to see if Luke was allowed to drink.

"If you'll get a small cup of water and a cloth, Mara, I'll raise up the head of the bed." The healer then looked at Mara's husband. "It'll help you, Luke, to drink and to breathe. You are going to stay in this position for the night, so tell me if it's uncomfortable or if you feel dizzy." She pressed a button on the side of Luke's bed so he moved up to an angle.

Mara walked over to the sink, grabbed a plastic cup and filled it with cool water. She grabbed a face cloth and walked back to Luke's bed. She tried handing the cup to Cilghal, but she would not take it.

"You're going to be in here a lot more than I am; you might as well learn how to do it now, you insisted on knowing how to do everything else."

"Okay," Mara said, nodding.

"Just put the cloth under his chin to catch any that spills out, put the cup to his lips – I don't think you'll have to open his mouth for him – and pour a little bit into his mouth. Wait until he swallows," Cilghal instructed her. "Then give him more if he wants it."

"Kay, Skywalker, you ready?"

* * *

"Yes," Luke rasped. He felt the cloth underneath his chin, the cup being gently pressed to his lips. He made sure his lips were parted as water started to trickle past his dry lips, past his teeth and into his cracked, parched mouth. He swallowed. His throat was so dry, the action was painful, but the water soon soothed him. He also felt water trickle down onto his chin. The water was quickly wiped away.

"Do you want more?"

_**'Yes, please.'**_ He felt more water being poured down his throat and he drank greedily.

"That's enough for now, we don't want to overload your stomach, making you go into shock," his wife said he heard her place the cup on the bedside table. "If you want more later, just ask."

"Luke," Cilghal said. "I know you are probably tired – your mind and body are not used this level of stimulation, but I want to assess your mental state and memory for brain damage. Do you know where you are?"

"A medcenter." He paused to take a breath. "I'm assuming the one in the Jedi temple. That means I'm on Coruscant."

"Good job Luke. I'm confident you are mentally and cognitively with us. I won't bother you with any IQ questions. But we need to see how much you remember. What is the last thing you remember?"

Luke thought for a long moment. "I don't know. I dreamed. I don't know what was real or when the dream started." He had to catch his breath after saying all that. "But I think I have an idea approximately." If he had been in a coma for four years, Mara's death was probably one of the first things that happened in his dream.

"Mara, why don't you go through the series of events that happened before... before he ended up here," Cilghal suggested. "Stop when he can't remember any more."

Mara nodded. She knew why: Luke didn't need to know why he was here, not yet. She turned back to her husband. "Okay, Farmboy. Do you remember Ben running away? He was gone for his 14th birthday."

Events started flooding back to Luke as he tried to remember exactly when he would have gone into a coma.

Ben. He needed to know Ben was alright. "Yes. And I remember him coming back. How is he? Where is he?"

"Good. Ben is doing well. He's away on a mission, but we holo-comm him when you're feeling stronger. You're getting tired, I can feel it."

Luke was so relieved knowing his son was not only alive, but doing fine. He wanted his son at his side so much. Even though he wanted to spend more time with Mara, he felt sleepy.

"That is to be expected," he heard Cilghal reply. "Even though you're not doing much, your body isn't used to so much activity. Let's finish up the memory part of the tests and we will do a physical examination after you wake up again in the morning. Alright?"

"Okay." He felt exhausted now that he thought about it, but he didn't want to go back to sleep. He feared that this was the dream and if he went to sleep again, he would wake up and she wouldn't be there.

_**"I'm not going to leave you tonight, there is no way to convince me otherwise. I'll be right here when you decide to wake up again,"**_ she sent to him. She had been reading his mind.

"But, before I do that, tell me if you remember me telling you that..." she seemed to struggle with the next word, "...Jacen was a menace. It was during dinner just after Ben came back."

"Yes, but I thought for sure that was part of my dream because we went to bed that night and the next morning you were gone... you left to fight Jacen..."

"No, Luke. We went to bed that night and..." He felt her shift her weight to face Cilghal. "He remembers up to the night before, but I'm pretty sure his dream filled in what happened onward from the time we went to bed. He's so confused."

Luke agreed with that statement.

He heard Cilghal tuck her datapad away. "Fill him in on what you think he can handle right now, but also let him rest. I'll be back in the morning. Call me if you need me."

"I will. But, Cilghal, don't tell anyone he's awake. I want Ben to see it for himself first."

"Alright, it's probably best if we don't tell everyone right away. I'll see you two in the morning." Luke heard the door slide open, then shut again.

"Farmboy, I'm going to talk with you until you fall into sleep, okay? It'll make going back to sleep more bearable. Can you tell me what happened in your memories after we went to bed that night? It might be similar to what really happened. Tell me through our bond." Luke felt her inch closer and run her fingers through his hair.

_**'Thank you. That morning, I remember thinking that I slept heavily because you had left and I hadn't even noticed. I went out into the kitchen and saw a note from you. It said: 'Gone hunting. Be back in a few days. Don't be mad at me, Farmboy'. You died that same day. You had confronted Jacen and he had killed you. I thought I lost you. I grieved for four years, but now you're back.'**_

"No, Luke. You're back." He felt her lean to the side and heard a tissue being plucked from a dispenser. Was she crying? He didn't hear any sobs, but then again, Mara never let anyone know she was crying. After a moment, she continued.

* * *

Mara made sure she had tissues close at hand before telling Luke what really happened.

"That night, after you fell asleep, I decided to leave and confront Jacen. As I was getting ready, you woke up. We talked for awhile, about Jacen. Then we argued about him and about him training Ben. I finally told you that I knew Jacen was going to hurt Ben and I was going to stop Jacen even if it killed me. As soon as those words came out of my mouth, something came over you and you pretty much collapsed on the bed. You said it was a feeling from the Force. One of tremendous sadness and grief, like if I went, something horrible would happen. You decided you would go to talk to him yourself because you didn't want me to get hurt. You also convinced me that no one else should come. You wanted to go as Jacen's uncle, not as the grand master. I let you go by yourself. Why did I do that?" she muttered, asking herself as she rubbed his hand with her thumb.

_**'I'm glad you did.'**_ He told her. She smiled. He would be glad that it was him in that bed instead of her there or worse.

"I waited until I felt Jacen's death before I came to you. As I travelled through hyperspace to Kaven, I felt you slowly dying. When I finally got to you, I was amazed you were still alive."

Images of Luke's bloody and beaten body lying on top of her nephew in that sewer pipe still haunted her. His limbs had been at unnatural angles, bent in unnatural places, his entire right side of his chest had been crushed in and a poison dart had been implanted, not just stuck, into the back of Luke's neck. She had found out later that it had actually reached the base of his brain. Blood had matted his hair. And his face: Mara didn't want to remember the mess that his face had been in.

Oddly enough, Jacen hadn't looked too bad, yet he was the one with the lightsaber hilt all the way through his heart.

Yet he was the one dead and Luke had been the victor.

"I got you on the _Shadow _and to Coruscant." She then felt Luke slipping into sleep and was glad that she didn't have to continue. "I'll finish telling you what happened, later. Rest for now, my love," she said as she made sure he was tucked in. She then placed a kiss on his lips as she felt him drift off.

More images started to flood her mind. Those of Luke's body in a bacta tank. Those of him being pulled out, only to go in for surgery and more surgery, only to be placed in the bacta tank yet another time. And those of him lying lifeless for countless weeks, when she, and everyone else still had hopes of him waking up.

Finally tears came. For the first time in nearly four years, Mara cried.

She looked over to the lounger beside his bed. She had slept in it plenty of times over the past four years, but she knew no matter how tired she was, she was not going to be able to get much sleep tonight, so she decided to do him a small favour. Getting up quietly, she crossed the room to a cabinet and a sink. She got a basin of warm water, two towels, a facecloth and a shave kit. She knew how much Luke hated facial hair, plus he currently looked scruffy-looking; that would just not do for her. Mara also knew how irritating shaving scar tissue could be and he didn't need to be in pain on such a happy day for them both.

Then, as she walked back to the bed, she realized that she hadn't asked Luke if he had been in pain; he never would have shown it. It would be one of the first questions she asked him when he woke up.

She set the basin on the bedside table, gently lifted Luke's head, which was dead weight in her hand, and put one of the towels under his head. He snorted, then let out something that resembled a grunt, but he did not wake. She placed the other towel on his neck and chest. Mara then went to work slowly shaving his face. She had done it plenty of times before, Corran had shown her how to four years ago, but she was extra careful this time.

When she was done, she cleaned him up and sat back in the lounger. She held his hand and went into a light sleep.

* * *

Luke slowly woke from his thankfully dreamless sleep to find his face no longer itched. She had shaved him. He tried to smile and was pretty sure he managed a weak one.

"Hey, Farmboy. Good nap?"

He would never tire of her touch or her voice.

"Yeah. Thank you for the shave." He felt her lips on his and did his best to return the affection.

"What time is it?"

"Oh-four-hundred. Do you need Cilghal?"

"No, she probably needs her rest. You do too."

"I'm fine Skywalker. Are you in any pain? Do I need to get you anything?"

"No, the pain isn't bad. I'm mostly just sore. A massage and a glass of wine might be nice."

Mara gave a short laugh and patted his hand. "Maybe later."

"Well, if you're not going to go back to sleep, can we call Ben? Is it early there? Where is he?"

"He's on Kesh. With the time difference, it'll be mid-morning there, so he'll probably be up. I'll flag the call as urgent." He then felt her get up and cross the room.

"Kesh?"

"A new planet. It was found about a year ago on the outer reaches of the outer-rim. He's there with a couple of other young Jedi knights. They helping the locals – the Keshi - become a part of the galactic government."

Luke was relieved when she didn't mention any crazy Sith tribe.

"Mara, who is the Chief of State? Please tell me it's not Natasi Daala."

"Daala? Why would it be that old croon?" she asked as he heard the holo-comm unit being rolled over to his bedside.

"She was the Chief of State in my dream, or for most of it anyway."

Mara laughed as she typed in the key code. "Farmboy, that right there should have made you figure out that it was a dream. No, we now have a new system of government since the GA and the Imperial Remnant has joined together. The head is Emperor Jagged Fel, but he is kept straight by the senate and other councils, oh, and his wife."

"Jag is ruling the galaxy?"

"Yup."

Luke followed his hunch. "Good gods! Did he marry Jaina?"

"Yes. Three years ago. It was a beautiful ceremony, we took your bed and all your machines down to the gardens so you to be there too. It was what Jaina wanted at the wedding, more than anything. Scary thought, isn't it: she controls Jag so Jaina Solo-Fel is ruler of the galaxy."

"Scary indeed."

"It's even scarier now that she is six months pregnant with twins," Mara laughed.

Luke laughed. "Really? How does Han feel about it all?"

"Oh he's as contrary as ever, especially now what Lando has a kid that consumes all of Lando's time and his other drinking buddy was in a coma for all of it."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Mara sat leaned forward in the lounger that was next to Luke's bed when the image above the holo-comm started to form. She recognized the head and shoulders of the person as Veri Kayn, a 'friend' of Ben's. She had come to the temple two years ago after completing her training at the academy. Mara knew that Ben was more than just 'friends' with the girl.

"Greetings Master Skywalker," the girl said with a smile and a yawn. Veri was an average-looking human with a small face and shoulder length brown-black hair, tanned skin, and dark, hazel eyes. "You're smiling. Why do I get the feeling that this is a message for Ben from his mother and not a message for all of us from the grand master herself?"

"Because it is, Veri. Is Ben awake yet? It's rather important."

"Who knows if he's awake or not? Killa, Mir'danne and I tend to avoid Ben's, Nakom's and Dillyn's rooms before midday." Veri walked down a hallway, carrying the holo-comm unit with her. There then was banging on door. "Is Benny-boy up yet?"

The girl got a loud groan in return.

"Have it your way then," Veri said in an exasperated tone. "Cover up anything weird 'cuz I'm coming in," she announced as she opened the door.

Mara then heard girlish screams coming from her son's roommates.

"Veri! Get out!"

"Oh shut it, I already know you all still sleep with stuffed ewoks."

"We do not! That's only Ben."

"Yeah, sure. Where is Benny-boy?"

"Sanisteam. Why?"

Veri started walking again. "Because he has a call from his mommy."

After a few seconds there was the thrumming of a sanisteam and another knock on a door. "Ben!"

"What?"

* * *

When Luke heard his boy's voice, so much was lifted off of him, even if he didn't recognize it. Ben's voice had changed, it was deeper now.

'He's turned into a man,' he stated, sadden by the fact that he missed it.

"Your mommy is on the holo-comm. She says it's important," the girl who had answered the holo-comm said.

"Just open the door, Vere, I've unlocked it, and set it on the counter," Ben said.

Veri muttered something Luke didn't pick up, then there was the sound of the door opening and closing again. A few moments later, the water was shut off and Ben started talking.

"Mom, what is it? I was kinda busy," Ben said in a rush.

"What? No 'hello mommy dearest'? If she didn't answer the holo-comm, I'd think Veri was in the sanisteam with you," Mara mused.

"MOOOOM! What is it that you want?" Ben mock-whined.

"I need you to come home right away."

"Yeah, sure, but why?" He suddenly sounded concerned.

"I think your father somehow caught on to the fact that we were finally plotting to kill him and well…."

Luke heard the holo-comm being turned. When it stopped, he knew it was on him.

He huffed twice to make sure he could get the words out as loud as possible. "Hi... Ben." He them huffed some more. Luke smiled as wide as he could.

There was a moment of silence then... "Dad? DAD!" then crying. "Mom? MOM! Can... can he hear me? Is he lucid?"

"Yes, Ben. He can hear and understand you," Mara said, moving to sit beside Luke on the bed. "He's just tired and weak." She held his hand.

"When did he wake up?"

"A couple hours ago," Mara replied.

"Dad?... I... I don't know what to say."

"There's a first," Mara muttered.

"Don't have to..." Luke huffed again to finish, "say anything. Just come."

"Alright, Dad." Luke could tell that his son was holding back tears. He was too. "Rest and get better and I'll be there in a few days. Mom, Dad, I love you, I'm leaving now."

"We love you too, Ben," Luke breathed.

With that, the call was disconnected.

"He's such a handsome man now. He reminds me a lot of you, only, he's much taller. I think he gets that from your father," Mara said, rolling the comm unit back. "And those feet of his!"

"Big?"

"HUGE! For a while I thought I was going to have to buy him wookiee shoes. You definitely chose some interesting years to miss."

"Puberty?"

"I believe Corellians have another name for it: hell. It was not fun for any of us. I'm just thankful for Han and Corran. They had to explain everything to me… and then I made them explain it to him."

"Mara, can you grab me another blanket? I think I need another nap before Cilghal comes and tortures me."

"Good to know you are still my Tatooine farmboy; always cold."

* * *

Mara grabbed the quilt from the back of the lounger. When Luke first went into the coma, she would often sleep in his room with the quilt they had on their bed when they first got married.

She the remembered something. She looked down at her left thumb and found his wedding band there.

When Luke was taken in for his first operation, moments after she had landed on Coruscant after rescuing him from Kaven, they had given her his wedding band and lightsaber. She had put his lightsaber on the nightstand beside his bed but had kept the ring on her thumb.

"Here. I almost forgot something." She slipped his ring off and placed it on his ring finger on his left hand.

She could see him smile.

Mara then spread the quilt out on top of him and tucked it behind his shoulders so it would stay up.

"I want to run get ready for the day and grab some stuff, okay."

"Okay, but kiss me again before you go."

She closed her eyes and kissed him.

* * *

He kissed her back as much as his body would allow it. As she pulled away, it was only natural for him to open his eyes, so he tried, and his eyelids responded.

Light flooded his sight, blinding him. He instantly shut his eyes. After complete darkness for four years, he was not used to the light.

"Oh! Here Luke," Mara said in a rush. Her voice then became commanding. "Lights: off." She then rubbed his cheeks softly with her thumbs. "Try again, please."

He tried again. He was able to do it this time. Luke saw his wife in the dim light of his beeping medical monitors and the sun peeking through the buildings outside. He couldn't help but smile. Her hair was as red as he remembered it to be, only it was now streaked with more grey. Her face had aged too, but gracefully. She had laugh – or worry – lines and Luke hoped it was the former. But she was still beautiful to him. Her eyes still sparkled and were the same emerald green. She was dressed in drab, dark brown robes. The sight sadden him a bit. He was supposed to be the drab, boring one, she used to wear such pretty tunics in blues and greens.

He still smiled. "Beautiful," he gasped.

She smiled as his eyelids started to droop. Damn his body.

"Thanks deary!" she said with mock enthusiasm. This was getting too mushy for her, he could tell. "You should sleep. We'll tell the rest of the family and the galaxy that you are awake when you wake up."

"I love you," he whispered as he closed his eyes.

"Yeah, I got that. I love you too," she whispered back. She then left.

As she was leaving, he opened one of his eyes to see her bottom as she walked out the door. Yup, that part of her anatomy was still downright sexy, like the rest of her body.

She spun around just before exiting. "I heard that," she said, tapping her temple. "You dirty, dirty, old man."

Luke grinned as he closed his eye and let sleep take him.

* * *

Ben trembled as he dressed in his light brown Jedi robes that also function as a flight suit. His dad was awake! He couldn't believe it. He had given his father up for dead long ago. People found it odd that his mother still had hope, but he didn't. Obviously she was right and he was wrong. Why was she always right?

Oh, yeah, because she was Mom.

He left the 'fresher to see his love and his interrogator, which were the same person: Veri Kayn. She was leaning up against the opposite wall, playing with her lightsaber hilt.

"So, what did Mommy want?" When he didn't answer, she looked up and saw him. "Ben?" Her voice was full of concern now. She almost never call him Ben. It was always 'Benny-boy', which she knew he hated. She called him that for the soul purpose of pissing him off. "Is everything alright?"

"Get Artoo unplugged. I have to quickly pack," even his voice was shaky. He went to go back to his room.

She stopped him and looked up, into his eyes. "Why?"

"My... my father is awake." He then crumpled to the floor in tears.

She knelt beside him, also in shock, and rubbed his back. She didn't know what to say. Then Killa, Mir'danne, Nakom, and Dillyn appeared.

Mir'danne, a blue skinned twi'lek, spoke, "Ben? What's wrong with him, Veri?"

Veri looked up. "His dad is awake."

"Master Skywalker is awake?!" Nakom exclaimed.

They all were in awe. "He has to get back to Coruscant," Dillyn stated. "Veri, why don't you take him in the Kazismo? If anything goes wrong, we will still have our X-Wings here. He will be in no condition to see Master Skywalker after doing the trip in his X-Wing."

Veri nodded. "Can you guys get him and me packed. I'll help him out to the ship. Come on Ben. Let's go see Daddy."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Even before he woke, Luke knew his wife was at his side, subconsciously. He could feel her. He opened his eyes and saw her from the corner of his eye. He was disappointed by the fact that he couldn't move his head to face her. His neck muscles still would not respond to him.

"Good morning, beautiful. It's morning, right?" He was surprised at how easy talking was and how clear and strong his voice was, compared to earlier.

"Yes, handsome, it's oh-eight-thirty," she said, getting up and sitting on the edge of his bed to face him. She pulled down the quilt and held his left hand. "Cilghal wants me to get some food into you before we do the physical examination and contact Han, Leia, Jaina and Jag." Now she wore a green tunic and black pants. He smiled when he realized that she was wearing his favourite colours.

"How are they? Are they mad at me for killing Jacen?" Luke asked with apprehension in his voice.

"Well, Jag is Jag. He's too still pissed off at me and Corran to be mad at you for anything. We appointed him leader of the New Empire after Gilad Pellaeon died, Pellaeon died shortly after GA and the Imperial Remnant joined together."

"He doesn't like the job?"

"Oh, he likes the job. He just doesn't like the task of babysitting the council of Moffs that goes along with the job. He says you're his favourite in-law since you don't annoy him or talk back. As for Han, you know he pretty much disowned Jacen after he killed Boba Fett's daughter while she was a prisoner for no reason during an interrogation."

"Yes, I remember that."

"Han will tell anyone that asks that he lost both sons in the Yuuzhan Vong war. In his mind, Jacen never returned as his boy, so he really did lose both Jacen and Anakin in the same war. As for Jaina, she knew Jacen wasn't himself. She could tell, maybe better than all of us, that he was going to cause her great pain. She had a vision, shortly before you killed Jacen, of herself killing him. She believes that you saved her from that great pain."

"In my dream, she was the one to kill Jacen."

Mara nodded, then sighed. "As for Leia, she was a mess after she felt Jacen die. I could feel her anger, confusion and sadness. I explained to her that you only went to talk to him and that he probably attacked you first. Then I let Jaina see Jacen's body, the holos I got R6 to take of the scene when I first got to you and the holos that I took of you while you were on the Shadow. Jaina figured the same thing I did; that you took a beating from Jacen while you tried to find a peaceful end."

Luke tried to remember if that was true or not, but couldn't.

Mara obviously read his mind. "Cilghal said that you will probably never be able to remember what happened after we went to bed that night and not to be concerned about it. It's supposed to be normal. Your head took a beating, so she is surprised that you don't have more amnesia. I, personally, think you should be thankful of that fact. You probably don't want to remember the pain."

"I would still like to be able to see those holos you took of me after the fight." He wanted to see for himself whether he could remember the fight so he could know for sure that Jacen attacked him first. Maybe the holos would trigger something in his memory.

"Alright. If you want to. They are on one of the data-pads at home. I'll get it while you are in surgery later today."

"Surgery?" he asked, confused and concerned.

She gave him a lopsided smile then poked the bed below his right arm where his right hand should have been. "No more stump. Cilghal assures me that it's something you have been through before and that it shouldn't take anymore than a few hours. I'll finally get to talk to you while you're still drowsy from anaesthesia. Leia always claims it was hilarious after Bespin, but I want to see for myself."

"Great," Luke groaned sarcastically. "Go on about Leia. Is she still upset about Jacen?"

"Well. After Jaina told her what she thought, she demanded to see it for herself. We, Jaina, Han, Ben and I, took her down to the morgue. Han and Jaina had already seen the body, so they knew what to expect. Leia was so mortified that she didn't say anything but that she wanted to see you. By that time, you had been moved out of surgery and into a bacta tank. None of us had seen you yet. When we went to see you, we all broke into tears, even me. Leia was a complete wreck and had to be carried out by Han. A few days later, she was still in bed but had called for me. She told me that seeing that her son had done that to his own uncle was worse than seeing Alderaan blown to pieces. Leia said she saw me and imagined Han in that tank and instantly understood. She forgave you and even supported your decision to kill Jacen. She felt like a failure as a mother. She blamed herself. Han, Jaina, Ben and I assured her other wise, but I think, deep down, she still blames herself."

"I want to see her."

"You can comm her, after you eat something. I'm going to go get you some food, be right back." She kissed him and left.

She came back with a tray and grinned.

He knew that they were going to start him on semi-solid foods first, to get his stomach used to eating again. He probably wouldn't be eating much, what he would be eating would be mushy and gross and he was going to have to remain on a nutrient drip for a while.

Mara set the tray on the bedside table and sat down on her usual spot on his bed. She then pulled out a pillow from a cubby behind his bed. "I'm going to use this to tilt your head forward a bit more so it's easier to eat. Tell me if you get dizzy. I don't feel like cleaning up barf today."

"Fine," he mumbled as she tilted his head forward, placed the pillow on top of the other one, and put his head back.

She then picked up the cup off the tray. "Cilghal wants to see if you can suck juice from a straw. It would make my life easier if you could," she said, holding the cup and putting the straw in his mouth. He closed his mouth and sucked loudly. He was glad that he wouldn't have to rely totally on Mara for drinking, he would take any bit of independence at this point.

"No 'sucking' jokes," he said once he was done.

"Fine," Mara pouted. She then picked up the bowl and spoon. She scooped a spoonful and held it up for him to see.

"What is it?" he asked, staring at the creamy, cream-coloured substance.

"Pablum, kinda like meal-o-oats, but soupier. Its narnar flavoured. Ben used to love this according to Tionne."

"And how old was he at the time?"

"Two."

"So, I'm eating baby-food."

"Just open up."

"No."

"Skywalker."

"No," he was being completely serious.

"It's not that bad, see?" She tasted some herself. "Yummy, yummy." She had way too much enthusiasm in her voice.

"Liar."

"Luke."

"No."

"It's like revenge for not looking after Ben when he was that age," Mara muttered, exasperated. "If you don't open up, you don't get to play with Han today."

"Mara, are you threatening me like I'm a two-year-old?"

"Yeah! You're acting like one! Now, open up or else I'm going to start calling you Skycrawler." Her eyes then narrowed. "Or worse: Lukie-Pookie."

He instantly opened his mouth and let her feed him the spoonful. He tasted it and swallowed. "It's not that bad," he said in surprise. "Give me more," he said, waiting with an open mouth.

She rolled her eyes, but laughed as she fed him more.

Once the small bowl was finished, he was full. She washed him up, got rid of the second pillow. "Full?"

"Surprisingly, yes."

"Good. I'm going to go get Cilghal."

He nodded and she left.

She returned shortly with Cilghal. Mara took a seat on a lounger beside his bed and put a hand on his shoulder while Cilghal stood at his side.

"Are you feeling any stronger Luke?" the healer asked.

"Yeah, much stronger."

"Excellent," Cilghal said. "Can you move anything besides your facial features?"

"No."

Mara looked at Cilghal.

"It could be for any number of reasons. Tell me if you can feel this."

Luke felt something poking his toes. "Yeah, I can feel that."

"What does that mean?" Mara asked.

"It means that, despite the fact that he is paralysed, he isn't numb. He might not be able to move, but he can still feel, which is good news. It means that the dart that went into his brain stem didn't do serious harm to his spinal cord. A complete upper spinal cord break was our biggest worry four years ago, remember?"

"I remember. Will he ever be able to move again?" Luke heard the concern in Mara's voice and felt her hand move across his body to hold and slightly squeeze his hand.

"I don't know. Either his paralysis is from muscle atrophy or a less severe spinal cord injury. If it is from atrophy, there is a good chance that he will slowly regain movement as his muscles start to build up again. If it is from an incomplete spinal cord injury, the damage may be permanent. I'm not a spinal cord expert, but I know incomplete injuries vary widely, but in many cases the patient can still feel or even have some movement below the injury depending on how it was broken, but often there is a permanent disability. It could also be from the actual poison from the dart. If it is, only time will tell if he will regain movement."

He wasn't sure how he felt about this, he was happy to be alive and completely relieved that he could feel everything, but if he could never move his body more than he could now, life as he knew it would change drastically. Would he be able to walk again, or even move his arms. Would he ever be able to spar with Ben, or hug Mara?

But he had Mara and Ben, that was all that mattered.

"Luke," Mara explained for his benefit, "The poison that was put into your system was meant to destroy the connection from your brain to your muscles and nerves, but leave the connection from muscles and nerves to your brain intact. It was designed to make you feel your death, but unable to do anything about it."

There were a few moments of silence as Luke took this in. Jacen had planned to make him die painfully. His nephew had wanted him to suffer as he died and not be able to do a darn thing about it. Jacen had indeed died a monster.

"We will give you the best physical therapy that we can to make sure you gain as much movement back as possible," Cilghal said, breaking the silence. "Now, let's see if the rest of you is still in good health.

. . .

After Luke was deemed strong enough for visitors , Mara got the comm-unit. She typed in the code for Han and Leia's place but put the unit in front of him.

Luke never felt so nervous. He smiled as the call was picked up by Han, who was rubbing his eyes and not looking at who was calling.

"Mara. What do you want? It's been a late night. Leia ripped into me good when Jaina tripped over a trail of my socks while she was here visiting us while Jag was in a meeting; then Leia kept feeling of these weird feelings of happiness from Luke, which I know sounds insane but she swears something is going on with him and she wants to visit him sometime today-." At that point Han looked up.

Luke gave Han a grin. "I'd actually love it if you two could stop by today."

"Yeah, he's been asking about you two all morning," Mara called even though the image recorder wasn't picking her up.

Han was still speechless. At that point, Leia did the same thing as Mara just did.

"HAN! Is that Mara? I want to talk to her." She was speaking out of comm pickup range.

A grin then spread across Han's mouth. Not even the shock of seeing his best friend wake from a four year coma could stop him from annoying his wife. "Nope, it's the kid!" he called.

"Why does everyone treat me like a two-year-old?" Luke whined.

Mara then sat beside him on the bed. "Because you act like one, dear."

"HAN! Is it Jaina? I want to talk to her as well," Leia shouted again.

"I swear she's going deaf," Han muttered with his infamous lopsided grin. He then shouted: "No! I said: it's the kid!"

"Is it Jag?! Ask him how Jaina is!"

"LEIA! Why don't you come see who it is!"

"Han!" Luke could hear the irritation in her stomps. "Wouldn't it be easier if you told me who-" his twin sister then came into view. She gasped as she held onto Han.

"Hey Leia," Luke said with a smile.

She looked like she was going to faint when he said her name. "L- l- Luke?"

"Yes, Leia. I'm awake. Come on over here. I want a kiss from my favourite twin sister."

She nodded, she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"We will be there as soon as we can, Luke," Han answered when it became apparent that Leia was unable to speak.

The line went dead, but Luke knew what was going on at the Solo apartment at this point. Han was getting an earful from his tiny wife.

"Now can we call Jaina?"

Mara nodded. "I know their personal comm codes, so there will be no jumping through hoops to contact them. Jag's secretaries are so annoying." She keyed in a series of numbers, then the call connected. Jag appeared instantly.

"You have to help me Mara." The poor kid was so desperate, he didn't even notice Luke. "Jaina is losing her mind because of this pregnancy. She swears Master Skywalker is awake and wants to go see him."

Jag was then interrupted by his wife who was out of view.

"Jagged! Where the hell are you? Where are my boots? I don't give a- WHAT THE KRIFF?" Jaina had waddled into their comm area.

Luke laughed. "I guess this is what happens when you rise from the dead."

Jag looked from his screaming wife to the comm-unit. He gulped for air.

Mara nodded. "I guess so. But these two love birds are under a lot of stress. Plus, they are sleep-deprived, so they are not exactly themselves." She then turned to the couple. "If Jaina will shut up for a moment, Luke is going in for surgery to get a new hand later today, but he would like to see you two before he does."

Jag, now red in the face, managed to get his wife breathing normally again.

"Master Skywalker, I would love to but I have a 'mofference' to attend," he looked at Mara and groaned. "Plus Han will be there, won't he?"

Mara simply smiled. "A mofference is a meeting of tiny minds from what used to be the Imperial Remnant. Jag just loves them," it was hard to miss her sarcasm when she explained

this to Luke. She then turned back to Jag. "And, yes, your in-laws are on their way here as we speak." She then turned to Luke. "Han isn't too fond of Jag, especially when he put Jaina in her current… condition."

"Mara, you are well aware that is an understatement. Han threatened to kill me when we announced our engagement. He actually tried to when he found out I got her pregnant. I'll drop off Jaina at the Jedi temple on my way to the former Imperial Palace. Her parents can take her back home."

Jaina was jolted out of her silence. "What? You will do no such thing. Uncle Luke, I will be right there because I will be driving myself there."

"No, Jaina. We have talked about this before -" Jag had reached down and was presumably rubbing Jaina's out of sight belly.

"Yes. And I agreed that I'd stop flying when my flight suit stopped fitting. There was nothing in there about driving speeders. Uncle Luke, I'll be there as soon as I can start up my speeder." With that, Jaina ended the call.

Luke then laughed and said to Mara, "Jagged certainly has his hands full." He was slightly annoyed by the fact he couldn't move his head to see Mara when she was next to him.

"Just imagine him in a couple months when he has two babies to deal with," Mara mused as she sat beside her husband. She knew perfectly well that he was annoyed with the fact that he could not see her. But he was going to have to learn how to ask for help when he needed it. If he didn't figure it out soon, the two of them were going to have a 'chat'.

It wasn't long before she felt the Solos nearing.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Han Solo kept glancing over at his wife as they drove through the Coruscanti skies. The tiny woman with greying rich brown hair and chocolate eyes was wearing a lovely white top with a light brown, lacy skirt and boots and was trembling. Han knew Leia wasn't trembling from the cold, but at a stop, he shrugged off his black, nerf-hide jacket and placed it on her lap before going again.

"Put it on," he ordered gruffly. Han knew not to order around his wife, but he also knew Leia was deep in thought, so she wouldn't pay attention to how cold her body was getting.

She looked up with tear filled eyes, tears, she refused to let fall. She complied.

The rest of the drive went in silence.

When Han parked the speeder in the Jedi temple hangar, he went around to open the door for his wife.

She didn't move to get out. Without preamble, Leia said, "Do you think he remembers?"

Han was not stupid. He knew what she was talking about. He knelt down in front of her. "If he does, he obviously does not blame you in the slightest. No one does, Leia. Why do you?" He had asked her this many times before.

"I was his mother Han, I was supposed to raise him right!" Leia growled. She then turned away from him, suddenly subdued. "I just want to see Luke."

Han sighed, running his fingers through his white hair. His wife was just too stubborn at times. Hopefully, the one person more stubborn than her could help her. He nodded and held out his hand. "Then let's go see Luke."

**. . . **

When Luke felt his sister and his brother-in-law near, Mara got off the bed and sat on the lounger.

"I have a feeling that Leia will need me to tell her some stuff. Would you mind leaving with Han when the time is right?"

Mara smiled. "Sure. I have to go talk to Corran soon anyways. He is the co-Grand Master along with me. I left him a message this morning, but he is going to want an actual explanation on why I'm not up there, helping him."

Then, the doors opened and Han walked in with a trembling Leia under his arm.

"Han! Leia!" Luke said with a huge smile. He would have spread his arms and gestured for a hug, but since he couldn't, he said, "Come here. I may not be able to reciprocate, but I need a hug. Mara sucks at comforting," he added, hoping to get a laugh from his sister.

Mara turned to him and swatted him.

"Ouch," Luke exclaimed. "You're hitting a defenceless cripple."

"Luke," Leia breathed as she slipped out of Han's hold and crossed the room. She leaned down, put her arms around him and held him tight. She unintentionally leaned his torso forward, causing his head to flop back.

His stiff neck cracked loudly and he moaned in pain.

"Oh, Luke. I am so sorry," she said, flustered. She gently moved her hand to cradle his head and lift it back up. She used her other arm to lower him back. She then started crying as she turned away from him.

"Leia," he said softly as he saw Mara and Han leave. "I'm not hurt. Please, move the lounger so I can see you, sit down and hold my hand."

She slid the lounger and angled it so Luke could see her clearly, then sat down, still crying unable to look up at him.

"Leia," he said softly again. "Please, hold my hand, I can't move it to comfort you, but I still want to hold your hand."

"No you don't, Luke. I was the mother of a monster." She still had her head down. "You don't remember how you got here, do you?"

"No, but Mara told me what happened. Leia, I know what you think and feel. I would feel absolutely horrible if Ben did something to you. But you have to understand that I do not blame you in the slightest. I know you did your best raising your children; Anakin was a great man, even if he did not live to see adulthood. And Jaina," Luke laughed to lighten the mood. "She defied Han and married Jag, didn't she? By the way, I want to hear that story. She is a strong, stubborn woman, much like her mother. And Jacen was a great boy, with plenty of potential, thanks to you and Han. But the 'Vong War affected us all. We sent out boys, your boys, out to fight monsters. They were not ready for it, I don't think any of us were. One died and I still blame myself for it-"

Leia suddenly looked up at him. "What?" she said in disbelief.

"Leia. I don't see how you're not mad at me. I have no reason to be mad at you, Jacen did what he did and there was nothing you could have done to stop it and you did nothing wrong in upbringing him. If you figure you're at fault because you raised him, then I'm also at fault because I trained him. But we are not at fault because we also raised and trained Anakin and Jaina. You should be the one with the grudge, I killed both of your sons."

She then moved her hand to hold his. "Luke, how could I be mad at you? Neither death was your fault. Anakin sacrificed himself willingly. The 'Vong were at fault for his death. And Jacen needed to be stopped, you unfortunately had to use your last option. He brought his own death upon himself."

"Just as Jacen, and the 'Vong, are the only ones to blame for his own descent into darkness. Leia, I love you, don't blame yourself, please."

"Luke. I love you too," she said, using her free hand to dry her eyes.

"Good. Now give me that kiss I want."

She smiled, stood up, and kissed him on the forehead.

Luke gave her a smile as Leia sat back down. She smiled back. "Are we okay now?" he asked.

"Yes, Luke, we are," she said, squeezing his hand slightly.

"Good. I hear you're going to be a grandma." Luke then wondered about Allana. Did the Solos know that Jacen had a daughter with Tenel Ka? The smile and the feeling within the Force of excitement and slight apprehension that Leia gave him told him that they didn't. The little girl would have never been in danger, so her mother probably never told them.

Was Allana even Jacen's daughter, or had his mind made up that?

"Yes," Leia beamed. "Our first grandbabies, Luke, I'm so excited. Han grows pale every time they are mentioned, but I know he can't wait either."

Luke laughed. He then found it slightly difficult to breathe, almost like he had to cough. He tried, but only managed a weak one.

"Luke? I can sense your discomfort. Do you need me to get Cilghal?"

"Yes, please."

Leia rushed out of the room and came back, followed by Cilghal, Mara, Han and Corran Horn.

Leia, Mara and Han all looked and felt worried, Corran looked and felt like he was in shock and Cilghal looked and felt mildly annoyed with them all.

The Mon Cal was the one to approach Luke.

"Do you need to cough, Luke?"

"Yes. How do I?" he felt awkward asking someone that, especially in front of so many people he knew so well.

Cilghal turned to glare at the audience that had gathered. Luke was surprised, he didn't know Mon Cals could glare.

She then focused on Leia. "You said he was struggling to breathe."

Leia looked down to avoid the dirty looks. "I was worried."

Cilghal then turned back to Luke. "I'm going to lay you down and teach Mara how to help you cough."

_Great. Now I even need Mara to help me cough,_ Luke thought as he was put back down. He used to be a totally independent man. People depended on _him_. Now he depended on others for the simplest things.

Cilghal waved Mara over and showed her where to put her hands: just underneath his ribcage. "Now, Luke, I want you to take a deep breath and cough and, Mara, I'll show you how much pressure to apply," she said, placing her own fin-like hands on top of Mara's. "Whenever you are ready Luke."

With that, he coughed and Mara pressed down, letting him get out a strong cough.

Cilghal then rose him back up again. "If you need to clear your lungs, Luke, please tell me, Mara or whoever you are with. If you don't, you could end up with an infection and I don't think you want to be spending more time with me than you have to." She then turned to Mara. "Keep an eye on his breathing. I know your husband can be hard headed at times. I'll be back in about forty-five minutes to prep him for surgery." With that, she left.

"I see that you told Corran," Luke said with a smile.

It wasn't long before Luke, Corran and Han were catching up.

"Hey, Han. Hey Corran."

"Hey Kid," Han said with a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good," Luke replied.

"Good. Just do me a favour and don't do that again. I had to actually go to Lando whenever I needed a break from stress, and that's not much of a break."

"Yeah, Luke. Please don't leave me to deal with your wife alone again. She is scarier than Mirax," Corran said with a grin.

After awhile, Mara slipped from her side conversation with Leia, the two were discussing Luke's condition. She approached the bedside to break up the male re-bonding.

"Luke," she said softly, turning his head to the side so he could see her. "You're exhausted, I can tell."

He looked at her guiltily. He had been giving himself artificial energy from the Force.

Han put a hand on Luke's shoulder. "Don't worry, kid, you just woke up from a coma, we understand. You should rest."

Corran nodded, "Yes, Luke. Rest and get better so that I don't have to be Grand Master any longer than I have to be. I gotta get back to work," he then looked from Luke to Mara, "Since I can tell _somebody_ won't be helping me anytime soon. Geez. We have three Grand Masters, yet I'm the one doing _all_ the work."

"Oh, stop your caterwauling Horn, and go send a message to all Jedi telling them that their all great and power leader is back and they can stop complaining to me about you," Mara ordered him.

Corran made a face at her. "They complain more about you than they do me. But while I'm at it, I'll set up a press conference for Master Solo," he said smugly as he turned to the princess. "You can deal with the press, Leia." He then waved as he left.

Leia let out a string of mild curses that she picked up from her husband as Corran left.

"Leia, you're a master now?"

Leia nodded happily.

"We made Jaina a master too," Mara said. "She isn't on the council though."

"Will she be here soon?" Luke asked. "I can feel her close."

Then, as if summoned, Jaina walked through the door, looking much like her mother when Leia was pregnant with Jaina and Jacen. She looked even more like the holos of Padme, Luke's and Leia's mother when she was pregnant with them. She wore Jedi robes that were clearly custom made.

"Uncle Luke!" the woman said, joyfully as she made her way, lacking any sort of grace, to Luke's side. When she got there, she looked unsure of what to do.

"You can hug me, Jaina. Or do I call you Master Solo Fel now?" he said, wryly.

She smiled, hugged him to the best of both of their abilities and the situation, then settled down in the lounger.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Tired, weak, so unlike myself."

She nodded. Luke then realized that not only did he have to get used to this situation, but his family did as well. It was obvious that she was not accustomed to seeing him so feeble.

"I know the feeling," she said, placing her hands atop her belly.

He gave her a grin. "Yes. I see that I'm going to be a great-uncle soon. Please tell me all about the wedding." Luke then heard and saw Han groan and roll his eyes in the background, "And ignore your dad. I know you're good at it. Tell me so that I won't have to talk anymore," he said with a yawn.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

After several minutes of catching up with his family, Luke felt Cilghal nearing and knew that his time with his family was almost up.

Cilghal then entered with a cuff-like device and a tube of gel. "I hate to break up the party, but I have to prep Luke for surgery now."

"Alright. Mara can stay though, right?" Luke asked, remembering how things had been done in the past. He had been allowed one person to stay by his side right until he went into the operating room. Not that he was scared or nervous, it was simply nice to have company.

The healer nodded.

"Okay." Luke looked at the Solos and their daughter. "I guess I'll be seeing you three around?" They nodded. "Good. Don't hesitate to stop by and we will all have to do dinner once I make my escape."

They said their goodbyes, then Cilghal went to work. She folded back Luke's blanket just enough so she could access his right arm.

His right arm, much like his left, was abnormally thin. He had always been a buff man, but now his arms were even scrawnier than they were when he was an adolescent. Both arms bore more scars than he remembered, but his right was worse.

Cilghal opened the tube and started spreading it on the stump that his right arm ended in. The gel felt cool at first, then it started tingling. He knew the purpose of the gel was to numb the area, even though he would be put under general anaesthesia in a few minutes, and to prepare the area for the membrane that would transmit signals from his body to his hand and vice versa.

"This, Luke, will give us a good idea what is causing the paralysis," she was saying, referring to the surgery. "If you can move your cybernetic hand easily, it will most probably mean that the paralysis is from the muscle atrophy. If you can't move the hand, then it will mean that your body is still suffering the effects of the poison or you have a spinal cord injury. We are going to do a scan while you are under to rule out a spinal cord injury."

Cilghal then attached the cuff around the stump. Its purpose was to cool the area, reducing blood flow. "I will be back in about five minutes to bring you into the operating room."

She left and Mara moved to take her place. Mara put his hand in hers. "While your in there, I'm going to go home and get some stuff. Is there anything specifically that you want besides that data-pad I mentioned?"

"Some holographs would be nice. This place is kind of dull. And maybe some pyjamas, or even a nightshirt. And your pillow."

"_My_ pillow?"

"Yes. _Your_ pillow will be more comfortable than this pillow, plus it will smell like you."

Mara groaned. "Ever the romantic, aren't you Farmboy."

He grinned. "Someone has to be in this relationship."

She rolled her eyes. "Will you require anything else my dear?"

"Just you, here, mocking me in my drugged up state when I get out."

"Of course. I would never miss it."

Cilghal came back and the three made their way to the operating theatre. Once in front of the doors, they paused.

"I'll see you when you get out, alright, Farmboy?" Mara said, taking his hand and leaning over him.

"Alright," he said with a smile, then she kissed him. "I love you," he whispered when their lips separated.

"I love you too," she replied; their mouths were still close and they were gazing deeply into each-other's eyes. She then stood up straight and Luke watched her as they pushed him away.

The doors then closed and he just wanted to go under then and there, so the separation was more bearable. The lights were suddenly brighter and he felt colder. Sounds seemed to echo.

"Master Skywalker," one of the healers said. He was a large, muscular barabel. Krit, Luke believed his name was. "It'z good to zee you awake. Theze onez have all mizzed you. Thiz one going to lift you up and put you on the table. Tell thiz one if anything hurts."

"I will. Thank you."

He then heard Cilghal's voice from across the room. "Krit, make sure the blankets stay on his body and Nalla, support his head and neck."

Luke felt hands cradle his head and neck and arms lift his body up. If it took two people to transfer him from one bed to another, he wondered if Mara would be able to look after him once he got out of the med-wing and back home. Would she even _want_ to? What if he could never move again? Would he be put in a nursing home? Oh, he certainly didn't want that, but if she didn't want him, he would go. He didn't want Mara to feel like she had to look after him because she was his wife.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he did not notice the many healers adjusting his body on the table. His head and neck were positioned so that his airways would stay open. His entire body was tucked in, except for his right arm, which lay out on an arm attached to the table. Luke was snapped from his thoughts by his own name.

"Luke," Cilghal said. "I'm going to put you under anaesthesia now. Just remain calm, breathe normally and count backward." She then placed the mask over his mouth and nose and he breathed in the gas. Within a few seconds, everything went foggy, then darkness took over.

. . .

Mara returned to the Jedi Temple after quickly running to her home to get a few things for Luke. She was able to slip into the back entrance unnoticed since her sister-in-law was giving a press-conference on the front steps of the temple.

As she made her way to Luke's room, she received many smiles from Jedi who now knew that Luke was awake. None stopped to talk to her, they knew better than to stop her when she now had a husband to take care of.

When she entered the room, she thought it was going to be empty, however, three beings were waiting for her, sitting in chairs, a third had been put out, forming a circle. One, she recognized as Tekli. The other two were female that Mara had never met, one looked like a hybrid between a human and a Lethan Twi'Lek or some other red-skinned humanoid and the other was a togruta.

"Greetings, Master Skywalker," the chandra-fan started. "Please sit."

Mara cautiously did as she was told. She didn't like unannounced meetings.

"Your husband is still in surgery, but I wanted you to meet and talk to Mrs. Plo'a Shik, she's an occupational therapist. You and her will work together setting up how Luke is going to be looked after once he leaves here," Tekli said, introducing Mara to the hybrid human. The two shook hands.

"And this is Ms. Ashlana Tano. She will be Luke's physical therapist." Mara was introduced to the togruta. "She is one of the best in the galaxy," Tekli finished.

Ashlana's white markings on her face blushed. "I wouldn't say that, but I guess it's true. It is an honour to treat your husband. I would love to stay and talk, but unfortunately I have an appointment. I will be back tomorrow however, to give your husband an examination and to talk to you about therapy. What we do will depend on Cilghal's finding today." She then got up, bowed respectably and left.

Mara felt something odd about the woman. Not wrong or dangerous, just odd. Plus Mara felt the Force strong in her.

"Ms. Tano has graciously cleared some of her busy schedule to treat your husband," Tekli stated. "I unfortunately have to leave as well. You know us medic and healer types; always busy." She bowed too and left.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Plo'a said, getting out a data-pad. "Do you know anything about nursing homes?"

Mara looked at the woman, confused. "No, but I -"

Plo'a interrupted her. "Well then. You are probably going to want the best money can get. I recommend Orawell Lodge. Most of the high ranking veterans go there."

"Okay, but -"

"Or there is also Sunsa Homes. It is less like a hospital and more like an apartment building, but residents still get premium care."

Mara was already fuming, which didn't take a lot. "Look, lady. I'm not sending my husband to some fancy nursing home. I'm going to be the one looking after him."

Plo'a looked at her, doubtful. "You realize, Mrs. Jade, your husband is going to need round the clock care, even if he does regain movement. He is still going to need constant monitoring."

Mara glared to kill. "So? I am capable of caring for him. I did it while he was in his coma. And it's Skywalker. _Master_ Skywalker."

"Okay," Plo'a said, fishing in the pocket of her blazer. "Here is a data-chip. It will explain to you how to care for your husband, give you video tutorials and has order forms for all the equipment and items your husband will need." The woman handed Mara a small chip.

"Thank you," Mara said, all too sweetly.

After Plo'a left, Mara slid the extra chairs into the corner, sat down in the lounger and started reading.

Two hours later, Mara was still reading and watching tutorial videos. She already knew how to do some of the things covered in the chip. Bathing, for example, she already knew how to use a sling to put Luke in a tub and wash him. Plus it would be much easier now that he wasn't on a ventilator. She was confident that transferring using a sling would be the same when transferring him from and to anything else.

Mara managed to muddle through the complex order form for mechanical sling so that she wouldn't have to steal the temple's. She also ordered, among many other things, special pillows for their bed at home so he could be comfortable in a normal bed, a bed-like table for the refresher so she could dress him after a bath, and a form-foam lounger for him to sit in when he tired of sitting in his hoverchair.

And that brought her to the order form to the hoverchair. She was pretty sure she needed a professional to help her with this order. She was pretty sure she needed a professional to help her with every order that she had done out. As she was staring at it, she felt someone coming.

Before they could knock, Mara flicked the door controls with the Force and they opened, almost glad that Luke wasn't there to give her an earful about being a hypocrite with her unnecessary use for the Force.

On the other side of the door was Ashlana Tano.

"Umm. Hello. May I come in?"

"Yeah, sure," Mara said. "Pull up a chair. I thought that you weren't going to be back until tomorrow."

"I wasn't, but I felt so bad about leaving you with Plo'a, I'd thought I'd stop by before going home." Ashlana looked to be in her late twenties and was dressed in typical civilian clothing: white leggings and a dark red casual dress. She dragged a chair from the corner and sat with Mara.

Mara liked her instantly. "So you have worked with her before?"

Ashlana groaned. "On occasion. But don't worry. I take over from here."

"Good," Mara then looked down at the data-pad. "I've done out all the other order forms; could you help me with the hoverchair one? I know that he will want to be up and around as soon as he can, so I want to order it as soon as I can."

The togruta smiled and took the data-pad from Mara. "This is actually why I came by." She then pulled a data-pad from her pocket. "Cilghal gave me all of Master Skywalker's measurements, current and former weights and his prognosis and expected optimal prognosis for the next few months," she said typing data in at a rate Mara could have never achieved.

"I am ordering a top of the line hoverchair because I know Jedi health insurance covers all this stuff," Ashlana continued with a smile. "He will be able to control it with a finger either on his left hand or his right hand. I'm going to set the controls on the right side because I'm an optimist, despite what my grandmother said. But we can change it if need-be. You will also be able to control it from the back if the worse case is the actual case."

"So I can make him go where ever I want him to."

Ashlana laughed, which lightened the mood, "Can't you do that anyways?"

Mara laughed as well.

"The chair will have a tilt feature that you both will be able to control, as well as a headrest. You will be able to take that off if and when he gains control of his neck muscles. One last thing: what colour will he want it to be?"

"Black," Mara answered almost without thinking. A thought then hit her and a grin crossed her face. "But I want it blue. Bright blue."

"Alright. Bright blue it is then. I'll put it on urgent so it should come tomorrow. Do you mind if I look over the other forms that you sent?"

"Yes, please."

Ashlana quickly scrolled through the other forms. "Everything looks fine. I'd better get going; the fiancé thinks I work too much. I'll see you tomorrow, Master Skywalker," she said, getting up and handing the data-pad back.

"Please, call me Mara. The whole Master Skywalker thing gets confusing when my husband and I are in the same room."

"Alright, Mara."

The two women then shook hands and Ashlana left, leaving Mara to wait alone.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Mara did not have to wait long. Within a few minutes, Luke was brought back in, still sound asleep, by Cilghal and a medical droid. Both his hands were above the blanket and the access panel to his right hand was open, exposing wiring and the battery.

"The attachment went fine, Mara," the healer said as she pushed him back into his spot. "But, the scanned images of his spine showed us something." Cilghal pulled up one of the others chairs put in the room and Mara was suddenly frightened. "There is an incomplete break at his C7 vertebra. He is considered to be a quadriplegic."

This did not make any sense to Mara. Luke just woke from four years in a coma, it was a miracle. They were supposed to be done with this hell. He was supposed to be fine. This was not fair. What had Luke ever done to deserve this?

Cilghal continued. "Ashlana Tano will be able to give you a better prognosis, but he will still be able to use his arms had have some fine motor skills in his hands. I'm very sorry Mara. Will you want to tell him?"

"I'll tell him," Mara's voice was detached, though her mind wasn't. "When will he wake?

"In his weakened state, he was affected by the anaesthetic more. He should sleep for the next few hours. Unfortunately, we have to make the finer adjustments to her cybernetic now. It's simply a lot easier if we have to remove it, to do it now."

The droid that came in Cilghal walked up to the side of the bed. "Ma'am, it may be beneficial if you stand on his left side and keep him calm as well as give him my instructions."

Mara nodded and leaned over his left side, taking that hand.

The droid poked Luke's right index finger with a sharp point.

Luke grunted and his finger twitch.

His brain could still relay signals to his body. It was something.

The droid continued poking his fingers and they continued twitching, and he continued grunting, slowly waking, though he did not open his eyes.

"Ma'am, can you ask him to open his hand?"

"Farmboy," she whispered in his ear. He smiled as she did so. "Can you open your hand for me Luke?"

She watched Luke struggle and ultimately fail. He did not have fine motor movement.

"Ma'am, Can you please ask him to flex his wrist?"

"Move your wrist for me," she said.

He opened his eyes a crack, he was awake, but heavily sedated. "Dooo I geeeeet a kiiizzzz?"

She tried not to laugh. Many would kill to see and talk to a drugged up grand master. "Yes. Move your wrist and you'll get a kiss."

He flicked his wrist, which made Mara smile, and then tried to pucker his lips up. He was obviously more concerned about his kiss than the fact that he could barely move his hand.

The droid closed the access panel on the forearm. "The cybernetic replacement seems to be in working order. My programming suggests that another examination be done when the patient is more alert. If there are any issues, please contact an actual medic or cyberneticist." The droid then left.

"Mara, can I talk to you in the hall, please?" Cilghal asked.

Mara nodded. She patted Luke's arm. "I'll be right back." She followed Cilghal out.

As soon as the door closed, Mara asked. "Why can he move his cybernetic hand a bit and not his real hand?"

"Cybernetics, for the most part, only involves nerves. He will eventually be able to move his arms and real hand when he is stronger. For now, he needs his rest. I suggest you talk to him to lull him back to sleep, they say it helps. He needs rest to clear the drugs out of his system. Don't mention the quadriplegia, try not to even think about it so he doesn't pick up on your thoughts."

"You want me to think happy thoughts?" Mara asked in disbelief.

"I just don't want Luke to be too overly emotionally stimulated in his state. If you need anything, call me."

The healer left and Mara went back in. She commanded the lights to go out and took her spot on the edge of the bed, putting her feet up so it was like she was laying beside him without encroaching upon his space.

It wasn't until then that she noticed Luke was quietly crying. Mara knew it was the effects of the heavy drugs and the premature awakening. It was not pleasant for anyone to wake up from a deep sleep to be poked and prodded.

"Luke? What's wrong, Skywalker?" she asked as she put her elbow above his head, stroked his hair with one hand and took both of his hands with her other hand.

"Yooou doooon't wwwlove me any mooooore," he said through tears.

"I don't love you anymore?" she clarified. "Why do you say that?" She knew it was the drugs talking, but he could also be stating real feelings and fears.

"Yooou neverrr kiiizzzed meee."

"Oh, sorry," she said, rolling her eyes. She then kissed him on the lips. "There. I love you. You know that, Farmboy."

"Why? Why doooo yooou still wwlove mee? Zzzjust put meee in a nuurrsing hooome. I can't moove. I can't spppar. I can't make wwlove to you." Between the drugs, weakness, tiredness and tears, it was exceedingly difficult to understand him.

She almost laughed. Sex! He was worried about sex! He was making the whole 'happy thoughts' thing easy. She grabbed a few tissues and started cleaning his face of the tears, snot and drool. She knew people with complete spinal cord injuries could make love.

"Farmboy, I fell in love with you, not your body, though I still find you damn sexy, even without those rippling muscles. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly young anymore either." She then whispered in his ear, "I hate to disappoint, but things are starting to sag. We have made love to each other in difficult situations before. Remember that time in the droid cleaning closet at Rogue Squadron Headquarters?"

He stopped crying and snorted.

"Or that time just after Ben was born? Leia was looking after him and we somehow ended up by the hyperdrive in the Errant Venture."

"Thaaat time I waaaas toooo tireeeed tooo geeet ooout oooof my X-wiiiing?"

She laughed. "Oh, yes. I remember that time. You were still suffering from the after-effects of Shimrra's poisoning. You were gone for a month and you were so tired but wanted me so badly we somehow did it right there in your cockpit. It brought a new meaning to the word, didn't it?"

Luke now smiled.

"It will be like when I was suffering from the spore disease. Not just our love life, but our entire lives together," she said, finishing wiping his face. "Only now it will be me helping you. You will do whatever you can do, and I'll be there to help you with whatever you can't do on your own. Okay?"

"Oooookaaaaay."

"And I'm certainly not sending you to some fancy nursing home so some twenty-year-old twi-lek can change your bladder catheter and bag," she knew he had no idea what she was talking about, but he would the next time she had to change his 'drainage system'. "Farmboy, if you survived Palpatine's torture, you can survive my care giving skills. Remember our wedding? Remember what I vowed. I vowed to be your companion, partner, aid and comforter for the rest of my life. Now, go back to sleep and we can talk more when you're not talking like Han when he has had one too many ales." She then kissed him again and continued to stroke his head long after he had gone to sleep. There would be no more fun when he woke.

. . .

When he awoke he found Mara tacking children's artwork to the walls. Holographs, few he recognized, of his family littered the bedside table. Some, like Jaina's wedding pictures, had obviously been taken while he was in his coma.

"Hey there Luke," she said, finishing her task. "The younger students have been sending in pictures for you since they found out you were awake. Leia's press announcement about your awakening was brief, but it went well."

"I'll have to thank them when I send out a broadcast to all the Jedi," he said, trying his best to look around. "Can you set up the holo-comm unit so I can do that? I want to thank everyone for having such a smooth transition without me and -"

"Fine," Mara interrupted him. She sat on the edge of the bed and took his hands. "But I need to talk to you."

"Mara? What's wrong?"

She let out a deep breath. "Before I do I want to make sure you know you aren't going to a nursing home."

"Yeah, I know. Believe it or not I remember our earlier conversation."

"But there is one condition to go with that."

"What?"

"You have to let me know whenever you need help. Don't be ashamed if you can't do something. Just be a man, a real man, and ask, no matter what it is or what I'm doing."

"You know it might need some getting used to this whole situation, but I will," he promised. "What is wrong with me?" When she didn't speak, he figured it out. "Is it from the poison or a spinal cord injury?"

"A spinal cord injury," she sighed. "C7. You should regain most of the function in your arms and hands, but they don't know beyond that."

"Okay."

Mara lied down on his bed beside him. No words were exchanged for a long time.

"You're really okay with this aren't you?" she asked.

"No," he answered. "I'm sure the five or seven or whatever stages of grief will start tomorrow or next week, but I just woke from a four year coma. Four years in which I stuck in a world where you were dead, then Ben died. For now, I'm still on a high. In my dream I would have given everything to see you and Ben again. This isn't everything, but I have you and Ben so I really don't care that I may never walk again. Not right now. How are you doing?"

She wrapped her arm around him. "I would have given almost anything to have you wake. Even before your coma dragged on, we knew that there was a good chance that there was going to be permanent damage. I even prepared myself for something like this. It's just not fair."

"I got you to take care of me," Luke said with a smile. "It's completely fair."

Mara rolled her eyes. "I think you're brain damaged."

"I think I'm in love."

"Is there a difference?"

"Touché. Can I get a kiss?"

"I guess." She carefully rolled over, straddling his legs, facing him. They shared a long, intimate kiss.

"I love you, Mara. You are my everything, you and Ben. I love you so much." Tears of joy ran down is face and soaked her tunic.

"How did I ever manage four years without you? I love you too, Luke," she said, holding him tight.

. . .

A few hours later, Luke sent Mara to go find some dinner. They had decided to wait until Ben got home before telling him, or anyone else of Luke's condition. That way they'd know a proper prognosis.

Cilghal came in to check on Luke. "How are you doing?"

"I feel like I'm on an emotional roller coaster, which I guess is better than the emotional free-fall my dream was."

"Well, we all know how unique your situation is. We are all here for you."

"Thanks. I'm just wondering; I know there is a ton of experimental stem cell research going on in the area of spinal cords. How good is my case for something like that?"

"Luke, you just woke up from four years in a coma. I think you should focus on recovering from that first. Then, maybe in a few months, we can look into spinal injury treatments. I have a knight working on a side project with using the Force to regenerate damaged nerve cells. I have her looking at your scans now, but I really want you to focus on resting."

"Okay. Thank you."


	9. Chapter 8

**AN: Hey. I'm really sorry for such a late update. About a week and ago I got some really horrible news which lead to a death of an immediate family member just a few days ago. I fly out tomorrow for the funeral. I swear I'll try to update more frequently when I get home. This is a fairly long chapter, hopefully that will make up for my absence.**

Chapter Eight

The next day Mara simply watched Luke sleep on her pillow. Whenever he slept, he had this look of deep thought, but at the same time he looked like he seemed completely carefree.

When they had finally untangled the previous evening, they had eaten supper together, she had spiceloaf while he got mashed tubors, and she had helped him feed himself. Luke, with his new cybernetic hand, could hold utensils, he simply needed help with his elbow and bringing the utensil up to his mouth. It was clear that he wanted to regain strength in his arms as soon as possible. She and Cilghal then unhooked him from the monitors, but they had to leave the drips in, and put him in a nightshirt and pyjama bottoms Mara brought from home. She never had the strength while he was in the coma to get rid of any of his belongings.

Then he had sent a short broadcast out to all the Jedi in the galaxy, thanking them for their support and blabbering on about the Force. By the end of it all, he had been tired, so they argued about her staying and in the end he won. She was thankful that he didn't ask about the data-pad that had all the images of him just after his fight with Jacen. She wasn't ready to re-live that day in her life.

That morning, Mara had come to watch him wake up, and then they had breakfast, talking about nothing and everything. They avoided the subject of his paralysis.

After, Mara had to pull down the covers to change his urine catheter and collection bag as well as check for bedsores. Even with his high-tec mattress, sores could still form, but it was rare. When she pulled down the covers Luke got to see himself for the first time since he had woken up. He had told her that wasn't too alarmed by the massive scarring - he had always had scars, but seeing his body so thin and puny was quite odd for him.

Then the slightly embarrassing part came; the changing of the catheter and bag. Mara removed his shorts and quickly worked on his 'package' while annoying him about blushing.

But the next part definitely made up for the mental discomfort he had suffered. To check for bedsores, Mara had flipped Luke onto his stomach and ran her hands down the entire back of his body, checking the skin. He had quite enjoyed it and was looking forward to the fact that Mara would have to do it daily once he got into a normal bed.

He then decided that he would take a short nap before meeting Ashlana Tano, his physical therapist, and going through his first session of therapy. Mara had agreed that it was probably better for his health and recovery if he took plenty of short naps throughout the day, as his body still wasn't used to being active, instead of running his body to the point of exhaustion.

Mara gently reached out her hand to smooth out his greying hair. He looked so much like a boy when he slept - so much like their Ben. She had watched him sleep plenty of times over the past four years, but this was different.

"Um, hello."

Mara turn to see Ashlana in the doorway. "You can come in," she said. She then turned to her husband and put her hand on his shoulder. "Time to wake up, Skywalker."

He opened his eyes. "Hello there," he said to Ashlana. He lifted his right hand the best he could.

She smiled and shook his hand. "Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you Master Skywalker. I'm Ashlana Tano, I will be your physical therapist. You are going to hate me, but I will help you regain movement in your arms and help you adjust to love in a hoverchair."

Luke smiled back. "I could never hate anyone, Mrs. Tano. I am very thankful to have you help me."

She grinned. "You obviously have never been through physical therapy. And please, call me Ashlana. Mrs. Tano was my grandmother."

Mara was confused for a moment, then she realized that when togruta women got married, the husbands took their wives' last names.

"Now," Ashlana continued. "First I'm going to build up your neck muscles, then I'm going to take the blankets off you and exercise your body for you. I want to make sure all the joints are fine."

. . .

"Alright," Luke said. He was eager to get going. Ashlana stood at the head of the bed, and she reached up and tilted his head forward so his chin was on his chest.

"Now. See if you can lift your head."

He tried. But he couldn't do it.

"I'm going to check if there's any movement in the tissue," Ashlana said, putting her fingers on his neck. "Try again."

He did and he still couldn't do it.

"You're definitely trying. The tissue is trying to work," she said enthusiastically. "It's just too much for it yet."

"So, basically, his head is too big?" Luke could hear the smirk in Mara's voice.

"Basically," Ashlana confirmed. "I'm going to help you, but you need to help me."

He then felt a finger on his forehead and felt her pushing. With Ashlana's help, he managed to lift his chin off his chest a few centimetres, then the palm of her hand took over for her finger and she helped him most of the way. Before his head reached the pillow, she let go and his head had two options: to go back or go forward. It chose forward and he ended up with his chin back on his chest.

"Let's try that again," Ashlana said, encouragingly.

After the sixth time, his head finally went back to the pillow.

"We are done, right?" He said, smiling hopefully.

Ashlana shook her head as she pushed his head to the side. "Now, see if you can turn your head."

. . .

After his 'neck-exercises', Luke was huffing. "Are we done now?"

Mara smirked. "What? Are you getting weak in your old age Skywalker? You move your neck for a few minutes and suddenly you need a nap?"

"Actually, a nap would be nice," he said with a smile.

"Later, Master Skywalker," Ashlana said as she took the covers off of him. "For now, Mara and I are going to massage, bend and stretch your arms and legs. It'll ease the mild pain you are suffering from. "

"Please, call me Luke." He smiled as he had two beautiful women rubbing his body.

. . .

"We are done for today," Ashlana said, putting Luke's leg down as he sighed in relief. She then turned to Mara. "I'll send you a schedule of his physical therapy appointments along with my building's address. Luke, how do you feel about water therapy for the first few weeks? We will put you in a pool and I, and possibly even your wife if she wants, will get into the water with you. You will get the therapy that you need in the water, but it won't put as much strain on your body."

"Alright," Luke said with a smile. _'I'll do it just so I can get you in a bathing suit,'_ he sent to Mara.

Mara snorted._ 'Who says I'm joining you in a pool?'_

"Good," Ashlana said, oblivious to the dirty Force talk.

Then Cilghal came in, directing a bright blue hoverchair.

"Ah, yes," Ashlana said. "Luke, I would like to show you how to use your hoverchair. Do you think you can stay awake for a small walk around the healing ward with Mara?"

"Of course."

Ashlana then told Mara: "If you put the hoverchair right beside the bed and lift up the armrest, you will be able to do the transfer without a sling."

Mara nodded and did as she was told. She then supported her husband as she sat him up and she slid him into the wheelchair quite easily since now she was much buffer than he was. She then made sure his head was appropriately positioned before putting his feet on the footrest.

He felt like such an invalid, but he knew he had to get used to it. There was no other option.

Ashlana then showed them both how to drive and operate the chair.

"Now," she said to them both. "Go hold hands, walk around and gross people out. I'll see you next week." She then left.

Mara turned to Luke, "Well, Skywalker. Are you ready?"

"No," he replied. "I'm cold."

Mara rolled her eyes. "When aren't you?" she put the extra blanket that was on his bed on his legs.

"When I'm in bed with you," he quipped.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Did you hit your head?" she asked as she dug through the duffle bag that she had brought. "Because you're dirtier than Han now." She then crouched in front of him and slipped on his old Loafers.

This small, simple act made him fall in love with her all over again. First, because she took so much care putting his crumpled feet (the tendons in his feet had shrunk, causing his feet to look crumpled) into the slippers; second, because she had actually kept the old, amazingly comfortable slippers that she had sworn to throw away so many times.

He laughed. "You actually kept these? I remember the few times when I saved them from the trash bin."

She looked up at him. "Of course." She then looked away from him as she got up. Something instantly changed in her mood, Luke could feel it through the Force.

"Mara?" He never wanted to use his arms to reach out to her so much as he did now. "What did I say to upset you?"

She sat down and put her face in her hands. Despite her feeling of great sadness in the Force, Mara laughed. "Do you know what the last thing you said to me before you left to face Jacen was?"

"No. What was it?" he asked earnestly.

"You pointed to those damn slippers that you just put by the bedroom door and said, and I quote: 'those had better be there when I get back, hot-stuff'."

"What a good-bye," Luke laughed.

"And do you know what I said?" she looked at him with a small smile.

"What?"

"'We'll see about that, Farmboy,' then you left."

There was silence for long moments.

"I love you, Mara," he said.

Her smile grew bigger. "I love you too." She then stood up. "Do you want to go for a walk now? Now that you look like an old geezer with your hover chair, blanket and your gods awful 'old man' slippers."

He chuckled. After all that, she still hated his loafers. "Yes. Hold my hand?" He turned the power on for his hover chair with his right hand.

"Of course." She then took his left hand.

Hand-in-hand, they slowly roamed the hallways of the healing ward. After being cooped up in the bed, Luke felt a tremendous sense of freedom as he drove his hover chair while his wife walked beside him. He knew, at that moment, he was a tremendously blessed man. Despite his new disability, his family was still treating him as if he were the same man, which he was. Plus, he had Mara at his side. With her there he could do anything.

. . .

After their stroll around the relatively quiet healer's ward, Mara slid Luke back into the bed.

"Are you comfortable dear?" she asked, taking his slippers off and pulling the sheets up over his body.

"What happened while I was asleep?" he asked. "You're suddenly nice to me now. Where's the abuse I fell in love with?" he joked.

She sarcastically laughed to cover up her nervousness. She decided that Luke didn't need to know what she went through while he was in his coma. It would only bring up bad memories for her and upset him.

"I'm just waiting till you get out of here. Then there won't be any witnesses to me abusing my physically disabled husband," she sneered as she pushed the hover chair into the corner and took her seat on the lounger.

"I can't wait," he said with a smile, but she could tell he knew something was up "What happened while I was asleep?"

"I've told you already, Gilad Pellaeon approached -"

Luke interrupted his wife. "No. I don't mean with politics. I mean with you. You personally. And don't give me any 'certain point of view' shavit. I was gone for four years, did you deal alright?" he asked her, ever blunt and to the point.

"Skywalker, I went to the dark side and killed hundreds of people and declared myself Empress Jade Skywalker, then I married Wes Janson and became Empress Jade Janson."

"Mara, be serious."

"I was fine," she lied. "Do you want to go through some holos now?"

"Mara, please. Don't change the topic. You went through a period of depression, didn't you?"

He hit a sensitive subject with her. "Luke, I don't -"

"Want to talk about it?" he finished for her. "I do."

"Well I don't." Mara couldn't believe that they were arguing already.

"Why not?"

"Luke, please, just drop it."

"No," he said defiantly.

"You're being stubborn," she rolled her eyes.

"Mara, please."

"I'm alright now, okay Luke. Just drop it," she snapped at him.

"I just want to make sure," he said calmly. "We can talk about this. I'll understand. In my dream, after you died, I went through a terrible grieving process. Ben even accused me of acting like I wanted to be dead. I guess I did, some days."

She laughed, sardonically. "See, that's the thing, Skywalker: you don't understand," she was completely blunt. "You had a 'natural process'. Even if it was bad, you still had a process. There is no grieving and healing process when your husband goes into a coma, is expected to wake in weeks but doesn't."

She then got up, hooked a data-pad up to the wall screen and set the data-pad under his right hand.

"These are the holos I took after your fight with Jacen. Just tap the screen when you want to see the next one."

Luke looked at her, hurt.

"I have to go meet with some people," she lied simply before leaving. She couldn't be in that room anymore, especially when he viewed the horrific images of himself after the fight.

. . .

Luke sat alone viewing bloody, gory pictures of himself. He had seen many horrific sights in his life but these… these were definitely some of the worse he had seen. Mara had instructed Are-Six to take still holos for the soul purpose of sending them to Cilghal during the journey so that the healer could prepare.

One was of his entire body. His right leg had been bent sideways at mid thigh - the femur obviously snapped in half. Bone protruded up, out of his left knee. Deep, cauterized gashes covered his torso. His left elbow was at a unnatural angle; same with his wrist. His right arm was a mangled mess of machinery, tissue, blood, wiring and bone. The right side of his ribcage was crushed, almost flat. He had obviously survived on one lung. His face had been smashed in. Mara was in this holo, clearly trying to open his mangled airway, he could almost hear her: "Stay with me. I know you can. Just stay with me".

It was the last picture, however, that got to Luke.

Mara had probably taken it to confirm Jacen's death.

Jacen's eyes were open, bright yellow with rage but empty of a soul. His mouth was in a twisted snarl and Luke's own lightsaber hilt was where Jacen's heart was supposed to be.

Luke's breathing became laboured and he uncontrollably trembled as visions took his mind over.

. . .

_"Jacen! Please! Listen to me!" Luke heard himself begging as he fought his nephew, green blade against green blade. "I know about Lumiya! I know everything. Jacen! Please! It doesn't have to be this way!"_

_"It does!" Jacen screamed as their blades continue to clash. "I'm doing this for the future, for Ben!"_

_"For Ben?! Ben needs you to be you, Jacen. Where's the little boy that would scream every time your father would squish an insect? Where's that boy I trained and lov-"_

_Luke was cut off when the wind was knocked out of him as his body was slammed against a wall of the sewage pipe. A poison dart came flying and was implanted into the back of his neck. Every part of his body became limp, but he could still feel everything. Jacen continued to beat him until he was a hair's breath from death. Pain ripped through him._

_"I'm sorry, Uncle Luke," Jacen whispered as he was about to carry out the killing blow._

_"I'm sorry too," Luke breathed. He was sorry that the single shred of Jacen that still remained in this monster had to die, but Jacen had to be killed, or more innocent people would die. It would be a tragedy either way._

_Luke did not care about Jacen's defences. If he was going to die, Luke would take what was formerly his nephew with him. He used all his strength and all his love to jump up, ignite his lightsaber. Luke slammed it into Jacen's heart before his own broke and everything went black._

. . .

Mara rushed back to her husband's room. Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong.

Luke was trembling and gasping for air. His eyes snapped open when she entered. The look on his face and the image on the data-pad told her everything.

She instantly shut off the data-pad and the image went away. She put an oxygen mask over his face and held him.

"It was just a flash-back, Luke," she told him. "Calm down and it'll be fine. Try your best to breathe."

Eventually, he stopped shaking and his breathing went back to normal.

"What did you see?" she asked, taking the mask off and rubbing his shoulder.

Luke shut his eyes and did not respond.

"Luke?" She grabbed both of his hands and sat down. "You're obviously upset about this. Please. We can talk about this. I'll understand." Mara then realized that she was being a hypocrite. She sighed. "If you tell me what you saw, I'll tell you what I went through while you were in a coma."

He opened one eye. "Promise?"

She rolled her eyes. "I promise Skywalker."

"I saw the last minutes of the fight between me and Jacen."

"And?"

"I did not strike in hate. I pleaded with him and in the end, I did what needed to be done. He needed to be stopped, but I wish I would have found another way," he said, avoiding her gaze.

"You did what needed to be done Luke- and it needed to be done then." she assured him, squeezing his hands. "Don't convince yourself otherwise. If you couldn't bring him back to the light, then he was beyond anyone's abilities to do so."

. . .

He squeezed back. "Thanks, Mara." He knew Mara wasn't lying to make him feel better about what he did, she never did that. "Now can we talk about you?"

"Are you sure you want to do that? I'm boring."

"Jade, you are anything but boring."

"That's Jade Skywalker, thank you very much. It was before and during your coma and it will remain so for many years to come." She poked his nose.

Luke smiled. He was glad that they could still exchange loving words amidst a serious topic. "I'm holding you to that. Now you're avoiding the topic. Was it really that bad?"

The mood suddenly went sombre. "For the first few weeks, surprisingly, no. There was no depression at all. Yes, I was terribly worried about you, but you were expected to recover in a decent amount of time. When you weren't in surgery, you were in a bacta tank. At that time I also had plenty of things to keep me busy, between Lumiya, Alema Rar, the change in leadership of both the Jedi and government, and dealing with Ben."

Luke had many questions, but one topped them all. "How was Ben at that time?"

"Ben was… confused. He had just lost his father and his cousin. He refused to see you for the first few weeks and he refused to go to Jacen's funeral. Since no one knew exactly what happened during your fight, he didn't know who to support. I talked to him, Kyp and Corran both talked to him - we wanted him to decide who his 'temporary' master would be, he eventually chose Kyp who led him into knighthood. Han also talked to him and Leia basically took him in after she recovered from the shock. I think it was good for all of them. Leia got someone to dote on, Han had another man in the house to take attention away from him and Ben got the compassion and 'man-talk' he needed. Of course, he constantly talked to me when I wasn't out hunting Lumiya or Rar."

"Did you catch them?"

Mara nodded. "We got 'em. I rather enjoyed kicking your ex-girlfriend's ass while Jag helped Jaina take down bug-girl while making gooey eyes at each other."

Luke laughed.

"We charged them with crimes, they were convicted and sentenced to life living in a cell with each other surrounded by ysalamiri."

"I wish I hadn't been an idiot and had brought others when I went to face Jacen. He might be alive today."

"Maybe. But he would be an angry Sith locked in a cell. You decided to take a risk and went as his concerned uncle. You knew that only you could both defend yourself against him and try to turn him back. You didn't want to put anyone else at risk and you wanted to go with peaceful intentions. It was an idiotic idea, yeah, but you did what you thought you had to. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"I won't, with your help."

"Good." There was a pause. "As the weeks went by, things started to quiet down and you were taken out of the bacta tank. At that time, Ben was adjusting. When I took him to see you for the first time, he was horrified. It was more your condition than you. Kyp thought it best to keep him distracted and busy, so we sent them on mission after mission. It seemed to work. He adjusted well, though he still didn't visit you at all. I was the one to stay at your side, waiting, just waiting day in and day out.

"When weeks turned into months, then it started to get bad for me. After six months, there was little hope that you would wake. I slowly slipped into a horrible depression. There were times when I would sit at your side, staring at you for days on end without eating or sleeping. Lowbacca had to physically carry me out a few times. Then I would go back to the apartment and sleep for days. I never wanted to get out of bed.

"I just was not myself. I would throw myself into work in fear of throwing myself into alcohol or something worse. Everyone tried to help me, but I didn't want help. I finally snapped out of it a years after the fight. Ben had come back from a mission and found me in bed after I spent nearly three weeks in our bedroom doing paperwork night and day. I hadn't bathed or eaten during that time. I was so weak from not eating that Ben had to help me walk out. I totally was not myself. At that point, I knew there was something wrong with me."

Luke had tears silently streaming down his face.

Mara brushed them away. "Ben put me in the healing ward and I stayed there for weeks getting my strength back. He stayed there too. It was then that we finally figured that I needed him. We talked a lot. He was knighted shortly after I left the healing ward and we spent the next two years together every day, going on many missions together. I slowly became myself again, but still visited you every day I was on Coruscant. A few months ago they found the new planet Kesh. We traveled there together. After all the diplomatic meetings, it was decided that six Jedi knights would stay there and teach the inhabitants of Kesh about the rest of the galaxy. I knew Ben wanted to stay for several reasons, one being was that a girl he likes also wanted to stay. I let him stay, I needed to learn how to live without him at my side every day. He was worried about me, and he made me promise to send him a message every week and to contact him if I needed him."

Luke smiled. "He's a good kid.'

Mara smiled back. "He takes after his father." She then leaned forward and kissed her husband.


	10. Chapter 9

Luke held his head up as Mara brushed his hair. It had been a few days since his first physical therapy session and he had been doing his neck exercises on his own and he could already hold his head up and turn it. Mara had just given him a bath and now he was back in bed.

Mara glanced at her chrono. "I gotta leave for that stupid senate meeting now," she explained. "Are you sure that you're okay with Tekli helping you eat supper? If you don't mind waiting an extra hour or so, I can come back and feed you and stay here the night."

Luke rolled his eyes. He hadn't allowed her to stay the night with him again since when he first woke. "No, Mara. I told you. I don't want you spending another night with me, you need some rest, in a real bed. Now go. After your meeting I want you to go out and have some fun. It might be your last chance to do so. Cilghal says she is going to release me as soon as she feels confident that I am breathing fine on my own. That's going to be any day now."

"Fine. Be that way," her voice was full of humour. She then kissed him. "See you later, Farmboy."

"I love you Mara!" he called as she left.

"Love you too," she said with a smile on her face as she left. After her senate meeting, she would have some fun because it was her and Luke's 25th wedding anniversary. She had it all planned out with Cilghal. Luke wouldn't get supper at his regular time, instead, Mara would return after the meeting and after running to the apartment to change. She would roll in another bed, feed Luke dinner by candlelight and lie beside him all night long.

. . .

Luke meditated, as he always did when Mara was gone from his room. He was using the Force to slowly re-generate his muscle tissue. He continued the work on his neck. It had taken him awhile to figure out how to do this and the process was quite slow, but it worked. Mara had no clue he was doing it, she would have called it unnecessary use of the Force. He had to agree with her, he was being lazy when physical therapy would work. But, by using the Force, he didn't need anyone to help him.

He then felt three figures coming and groaned. He wasn't opposed to visitors, but they never came this late. He had been expecting a quiet evening to himself after so many people came and went during the past few days.

Moments later, Luke opened his eyes to see Wedge Antillies, Wes Janson and Derek "Hobbie" Klivian entering his room. At least he would get a few laughs.

"Hey boss!" they all said in unison. They then took turns embracing him.

Wes then turned to Hobbie. "So, Hobbs, how are you going to one up 'Grand-Master-Fourteen-Surgeries-Fifty-Five-Days-I n-A-Bacta-Tank-Four-Years-In-A-Coma'?"

Hobbie threw his hands up in defeat. "I don't." He turned to Luke and bowed. "You truly are the Master of the Bacta, Luke."

"Thanks," Luke replied sarcastically. "So, what are you three doing here so late? I love company but visiting hours are over. Cilghal is going to kill all of you."

Wes looked hurt. "Do we need an excuse to visit our favourite boss?"

Wedge huffed, but then smiled. "Actually Luke, Cilghal knows we are here. We are here to bust you out of here."

"Really?" he asked excitedly. He was done with Pablum, mashed tubers, and sleeping alone. He wanted fluffy hotcakes, nerf steak and to be tangled in Mara's limbs.

Hobby nodded. "Consider it our anniversary gift for you and Mara."

"What anniversary?" he asked, confused.

"Oh, great gods," Wes muttered, putting his face in his palm. "I can't believe he forgot!"

"Even I didn't forget Iella's and mine," Wedge muttered and turned away in disgust.

"Forget what? I don't know what month it is! I've been in a coma for four kriffing years!" Luke railed, realizing that in his time awake he had not bothered to ask the date.

"You brought the catalogue chip right Hobbie?" Wedge asked.

Hobbie nodded, stepped forward and placed a datapad in Luke's hands. On it were pictures and prices of jewellery.

Luke was still lost.

"It's yours and Mara's 25th wedding anniversary," Wedge explained with a grin.

Luke started panicking. "Oh, Force! I have to do something special. I have to-"

Wedge laughed and put a hand on Luke's shoulder. "Wes, Hobbie, Han and Leia and I have everything planned. Corran and some senators have Mara distracted for awhile. All you gotta do is pick out something for Mara, order it and Wes will go get it while Hobbie and I get you ready."

Hobbie held up a bag of clothes. "And it looks like we got the easy job after all. I'm guessing Mara already shaved and washed you."

Luke nodded then picked out and ordered an attachment to go onto Mara's wedding ring to make it larger. It was two thin bands inlayed with diamonds to go on either side of her ring. He also ordered her a pair of matching earrings.

Wes went off and Cilghal came in to disconnect him from all of his drips.

"Now Luke," the healer said as she worked. "I am releasing you but there are some conditions. Make sure Mara checks your skin daily for sores, and tell her if you experience any shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. If you can't eat much, you will have to come back and we will have to put you on a drip again. Sleep if you need it, whatever time it is.

"On another note," she continued. "I know what you and Mara are going to be doing tonight and I can assure you, you will be fine. I've checked your blood for dysfunctions men your age sometimes get and you will have no issues. Also, since you can feel everything, it should still be pleasurable for both you and Mara."

This elicited blushing from Luke and stifled laughs from Wedge and Hobbie.

Cilghal then finished Luke up, and Wedge and Hobbie began dressing him.

After an awkward, uncomfortable half an hour later, Luke was dressed in black dress pants and a black dress shirt with the top two buttons un-done. The clothes were baggy since he lost so much mass and he actually needed the belt his lightsaber was clipped to. He was in his hover chair and Wedge was kneeling at his feet, putting on his socks and boots. Hobbie was currently packing for Luke.

Wes then appeared again with a black box with a silver bow. "We almost done here?" he asked, setting the box on Luke's lap. "My speeder-van is parked at one of the side entrances so we can sneak out of here."

Wedge nodded and the four former Rogues made their way through the relatively quiet halls of the Jedi Temple.

Hobbie and Wedge loaded Luke into the windowless back of the van while Wes climbed into the front.

. . .

When he entered his home for the first time in four years, he found Han and Leia had rearranged the living room. It now looked like a wedding hall with an aisle, with the couches serving as seats, leading up to the large window. Just in front of the window sat a small table. Behind the table stood Han Solo, trying to memorize what he had to do for the vow renewal ceremony, since he was a captain, he could legally preform marriages. Leia was in the dining room, setting the table for two with candles and fancy china.

"Welcome home, Luke," Han said. He was wearing a nice pair of dress pants and a white dress shirt.

Luke trundled down the aisle and smiled as Wes, Wedge and Hobbie took off their jackets revealing similar outfits to the one Han wore.

"Everything is set, Luke," Leia said as she exited the dinning room. She was wearing a dark purple dress with long sleeves. "When Mara comes back, after she slaps us all for tricking her, I'm going to help her change and you and her are going to exchange vows… again. Then we are going to put the living room back in order and leave you and Mara to eat the dinner we made -"

"WE?" Han shouted. "Don't worry, Luke. Leia had nothing to do with the cooking. I made dewback steak for you and nerf steak for Mara. They are in the warming drawer along with some side dishes. You two can enjoy them and the rest of your evening when we leave."

"Thanks guys," Luke said with a smile. "I think I sense Mara coming!"

Luke made his presence in the Force very small and waited in silence.

The apartment doors then opened revealing a very annoyed Mara. She had sensed the others' presence, but not Luke's. "What in Corellian's Nine Hell's Names is goin-"

. . .

When Mara saw Luke, she gasped, and then grinned at the sight of him in his formal attire, looking at her with huge blue eyes. The grin turned into a smile when she realised that she and Luke would get to spend their 25th wedding anniversary together.

In the same bed.

Before she could say anything, Leia ushered her into her and Luke's bedroom to help her change.

Leia exited the bedroom first, sitting down beside Hobbie on one of the couches.

Music was then started by Wedge and Luke's anticipation rose.

Mara then came out of the darkness and down the hall wearing a one sleeve, tea length black dress. Her greying red hair framed her face and cascaded down her shoulders.

She slowly walked towards Luke with a huge smile. She stopped in front of him and turned to Han.

Han cleared his throat. "Could the bride please take the groom's hands."

She turned to Luke and looked into his eyes while she reached down and took Luke's own hands in her own.

He held onto her hands and looked up into her green eyes as best that he could.

Han continued. "Mara Jade Skywalker, do you promise to continue to freely bind yourself to Luke Skywalker. To be his companion, partner, aid and comforter for all the days of your life?"

"Farmboy," Mara started with her spur of the moment vow. "Even before I met you, I wanted to kill you. Over the past 25 years of marriage, there has been times when I have still wanted to kill you. I can promise you there will be more times when I want to kill you, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I freely got myself into this mess and I never plan to get out of it. I swore 25 years ago to be your companion, partner, aid and comforter for all the days of my life and I still promise, especially now, to stick by your side, to be the better half of you, to wipe your bum and to rub your back for the rest of my pathetic, wonderful life."

When Han stopped snickering, he addressed Luke. "And do you, Luke Skywalker, promise to continue to forsake all others, to be Mara's comfort, confidant and friend, lover and companion for the rest of your mortal years?"

Luke smiled as he continued to gaze at Mara. "Mortal years? I plan to come back to annoy you when you finally come to your senses and put me out of my misery. Mara, my own personal assassin, you make every moment of my life worth living. I may not be able to do much now, but I will do whatever I can to comfort you. Even if I can't do the more physical parts of our relationship…" This brought snickers from the other men and Luke blushed. "…Sparring, I mean, I still can talk for hours, especially with you. I don't care what we do, as long as we are doing it together. I've been pretty non-existent for the past four years and I swear to make up the time. I love you, Mara. You are the half that makes my soul whole and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Mara, kiss your husband to seal the deal, again," Han said.

Mara leaned forward and down and gave Luke a long kiss.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Ben knew he was dreaming. A Jedi just knew the difference between a dream, a vision and a reality. He was walking down an unfamiliar hallway towards a waiting room. He was in a medcenter. When he reached the waiting room, he saw his father, sitting there, perfectly fine. He often had dreams of his father.

"Hey Dad," Ben said, figuring this dream would be like the others. He would have a cryptic conversation with his 'father' and then wake up. But this time his father didn't look up. His father couldn't hear him. Ben waved and nothing happened. He wasn't there.

"Looks like I'm a ghost," Ben muttered to himself. He sat beside his father.

Luke looked he was barely keeping it together. He was rocking back and forth, playing with his wedding band. His clothes were covered in blood.

Ben's Uncle Han walked into the room. "Luke. Are you sure you don't want to make this decision."

"Han, please. Just do what Mara would want. I don't want to do this." Tears leaked out of his eyes.

"Okay. Leia thinks Mara would have wanted to let him go. He has minimal brain activity, he is having seizures every few minutes and every seizure is opening his wound. He is suffering."

Luke nodded. "How can I do this?"

"Luke, I know what hell you are going through, but Ben is dead. Ben died on Borlas. You simply managed to keep his heart pumping until you got him here."

Ben gasped. He just wanted to scream at his dad that it was all a bad dream; that they would wake up and it all would be fine.

"Leia will do all the paperwork, but you need to go be with your son one last time."

"No."

"Damn it Luke! You don't get to do this. I never got to hold Anakin one last time. Damn me to hell if I let you pass this up."

"I can't see him. It's my fault he's dying!"

Ben's mother had told him what hellish nighmare his father had dreamt while in a coma. This must have been it. Ben just wanted to wake up and see his father.

"No. It's that Vestara's fault. I will never forgive you if you don't be with Ben. Neither will you and neither will Mara!"

Leia appeared. Tears stained her face. "Luke, Ben needs to hold you. It is Skywalker tradition for the child to hold the parent as they die. Our father held his mother; you held our father. Now Ben must hold you as you die. I know what you will be doing after this: you will go face Abeloth and you will make sure you die with her."

Luke nodded, got up and robotically walked to a critical care room. Ben followed and gasped at what he saw: himself, wrapped up in white, tubes and wires flowing everywhere.

Ben watched as Luke held the other Ben's hand as nurses disconnected him. His father then picked up the body and held it as the corpse slowly stopped breathing.

. . .

Ben woke up and sat up in his bunk. "Kriff, that was fracked up," he muttered to himself as he rubbed his eyes and swept his hair away. He slipped out of the bunk and pulled an undertunic on. He walked into his 'fresher to splash some water on his face and looked in the mirror.

He had been crying. He needed his dad.

He walked back into his cabin and noticed that his data-pad was blinking "1 New Message!".

Veri must have made another jump while he had been sleeping and that was why he had new messages. One could only receive messages while in real space.

He reached out for her in the Force and found her asleep, one of the few things that teenagers tended to do while stuck in hyperspace for days. What else was there to do?

Ben grabbed his data-pad and sat back on his bunk.

The message read:

To: All Members of the Jedi Order

From: Master Jade Skywalker and Grand Master Skywalker

Subject: Greetings and Thank You's

The content was a holovid. Ben played it and it brought a smile to his lips. It was of his father giving his thanks to many Jedi and the entire order. His father, of course, had lectured on the Force. The video was short and to many his father probably looked extremely weak, but Ben knew that his father had made great strides since yesterday when he had talked to him briefly. Sure his dad couldn't even hold his head up, but at least he could open his eyes and speak in full sentences.

"Ben?" a voice came from the cabin across the gangway.

"Yes Veri."

"You awake?"

He chuckled. "No."

"Talking in your sleep again are we?"

"Apparently."

"Can I get any secrets from the chattering comatose Ben?"

"No."

"Why not."

"Because, if I did reveal any secrets, I would have to kill you."

"Oh, all and mighty Benny-Boy has so many government secrets that he would have to kill me if he ever told me," she mocked.

"That's the way it goes."

"Prove it. What's in area 51 of Coruscant?"

"The deed to Dathomir, a body of a Cthon and The Arc Of The Jedi."

Veri began laughing. "Really? The lost Arc that carries the original Jedi Code?"

"Yup. The Prophecy of the Chosen One is in there too."

"You know what? Part of me believes you."

"You should. I am the newest golden boy in a line of golden boys."

"Yeah, and cocky too."

"That, Veri dear, is from my uncle. Now, go make me a sandwich, woman."

"Now, if your uncle said that to your aunt, what would she do?"

Ben snorted. "Make his death so painful that he would be so desperate he'd beg for mercy from my mom."

"Well, I'm too lazy to do that."

"You're too lazy to do a lot of things."

"BEN! DON'T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE AND BEAT YOU!"

"Oh, please do Veri. Please do," he drawled.

"You're sick. I'm going to have a nice long sonic-shower. I might be out by the time we land next week."

"Can I join you?"

"No!"


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Love making was awesome to begin with. Love making with a Force Bond with was mind blowing. Love making with a Force Bond, on your 25th wedding anniversary, after you have been in a coma for four years was indescribable.

Luke and Mara became one with each other and, temporarily, one with the Force and love itself.

It was perfection.

Needless to say, Luke was smiling even when he woke, and not only because he found himself unclothed with a nude Mara in his arms with her hair cascading all over him.

She woke and smiled up at him. She shifted slightly to kiss him on the cheek, and then continued to gaze into his eyes.

No words were spoken for long moments.

Finally, Mara spoke.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked.

"Anything but baby food."

She laughed. "That I can do." She moved his hands and placed them atop of his body. She then kissed his forehead and sat up. "Why don't you get a bit more sleep and I'll make breakfast."

He didn't want to argue. "Alright."

She got up, threw on a robe and tucked him back in before leaving. He drifted blissfully back to sleep.

. . .

When Luke awoke again, Mara was walking back in with a tray of food. She set it on the end of the bed and walked over to his head with a huge wedge-shaped pillow, similar to the one he was lying on now, only this one would boost his torso up higher. She leaned him forward, placed the pillow down, and leaned him back again.

He smiled up at her and slowly and shakily moved his right arm so his fingers brushed her arm.

She looked at him in amazement.

"Farmboy!" she shouted in astonishment as she swung her arms around his neck.

"I just wanted to thank you."

"That's quite a thank you!"

"Well. It's going to be a while before I'm swinging a lightsaber," he said looking down at his arm. "Just that tired me out."

She smiled knowingly at him. "Do you want to give it a rest while I feed you?"

"Is it a bother?"

"Skywalker, you are always a bother, but never, never in that way." Mara then got the tray of food and sat beside him.

"Ooh! Hot-cakes and hot chocolate!" he exclaimed.

. . .

Once breakfast was finished, Mara explained to Luke how they were going to sanisteam together, one of his favourite post-love-making activities. She was going to put him in a sling and carry him to the sanisteam. There she would put him in a sanisteam-chair and they would do what they'd normally would do.

"It seems like a lot of work, Mara. You gave me a bath yesterday. Wouldn't it be easier if you just dressed me here, on the bed, and transferred me to my chair?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it would be easier. But we have time to kill before our council meeting and I know there is nothing either of us would rather do. Besides, we need to get you rolling yourself over. They say it's a good workout for you."

She then got out a large piece of fabric mesh and laid it on the bed. "Kay. Now I'm going to help you roll over onto the sling so that you are in the middle facing upward."

Luke had never felt so incapable. Mara had to roll him over to get him onto the sling, something a mere infant could have done.

Mara stopped there once she felt his mood shift. She covered him up with a blanket so that he would feel more dignified (she hadn't bothered to put anything on him). "Luke, tell me what you are feeling, and don't say it's nothing."

He struggled for the right words. "I… I've always been independent, now I'm not. But I know there is no other alternative."

She nodded. They were going to take this logically and calmly. "It's like the nursing home discussion. Are you worried that I'm having issues with this situation?"

"Yes."

"Skywalker, we are lucky. Because we are older, we can handle this better. If this had of happened when you were younger, you would probably would have had a much harder time with this. But it is still totally understandable that you are having issues with having to depend on people. But, like you said, there is no alternative. Also, I want to assure you that I am having no issues with this. Yes, you are paralyzed. It sucks, and it might be permanent, but you will not depend on me for everything. Once you start physical therapy, you will amaze us all with how quickly you regain your upper body strength. I came to realize how much I loved you when you were in a coma. I prayed to the Maker. I said I would have given my life and soul just to see one more smile from you…."

As she said this, he gave her a smile.

"Ah. There's the Farmboy I love," she said, caressing his cheek with her thumb. "You're back with me now, and if this is what I have to do to see your smiling face every morning, I don't mind it one bit as long as I don't have to deal with your emotional baggage as well. They say you are at high risk for depression and I don't want you getting down when Ben comes back. I'm glad that we had this talk, you're feeling a lot happier. If we need to talk again, just let me know."

"I will. The last thing I want to do is make you or Ben worry. Now, can we have that sanisteam?" he asked, trying to instil in himself the fact that he needed to be happy to make Mara and Ben happy.

She nodded, attached the four corners of the sling together and stuck her arm and neck through the loop. She then picked him up, it was quite easy with his weight distributed between her arms and back.

. . .

After their sanisteam, Mara, wrapped in a bathrobe, dressed Luke in his typical Jedi blacks and attached his lightsaber to his belt before putting him in his hoverchair. He once again looked like the Jedi Master he was.

"Farmboy? Can you do me a favour?" she asked as she started blow-drying her hair.

He instantly perked at the chance to help his wife. "Yes. What is it?" he asked waiting like a faithful hound waiting for a toy to be thrown.

"Can you go get me some clothes? We're running a bit late now," some unexpected but pleasant things had happened in the sanisteam.

"Sure dear," he said as he sped off to their walk-in closet. Once inside, he drove up to Mara's sock, underwear, brassiere, and under-tunic drawer, which was at the same height as his right hand, opened it and got what Mara needed, plunking the four items in his lap. He then turned to her pants rack, which was also at the right height for his weak right arm to swing out and grab. He pooled a pair of dark brown pants in his lap as well. He then turned his attention to the rack of tunics. He decided on one - a sage green one - and pulled it down with his teeth. He got a matching belt the same way. Luke then went to their robe rack. He grabbed a brown robe with his teeth and drove back, the robe landed on the pile of clothes. He then raced back to Mara.

She gave him a smile as he entered with the clothes. "And you didn't even have to use the Force."

. . .

Luke wore a huge smile as he entered the Jedi High Council Chambers alongside Mara. They had been attacked by a mob of students, ranging in age from the youngest twi'lek apprentice, to Jedi Knight Valin Horn, when they had entered the temple and had easily convinced Luke to give them a lesson. Luke had led them to an empty classroom and lectured on the importance of teamwork. Now both were late for the council meeting.

"Look who finally decided to show up," Corran Horn snorted as he moved Luke's lounger to a corner so Luke could stay in his hover chair.

Mara gave the man a rude gesture before sitting down. Luke parked his chair in-between the two bickering Co-Grand Masters.

Luke surveyed the scene as other masters sat down. Mara had informed Luke before they came that Master Hamner had contracted a horrible infection two-years ago and he had survived almost twelve months before he died alone in his bed.

"Don't worry about being late Luke, we understand," Tionne Solusar said, attending in holographic form, along with her husband, from the Jedi academy. "Besides Masters Durron and Organa-Solo aren't here yet."

The mention of Durron drew several snickers and groans from several masters.

"How are you feeling?" Tionne asked.

"Tired, but better now that I'm back at home," he replied.

Then, Leia came rushing in. She had done often before Luke had gone into a coma, but now she was allowed in. "Sorry," she apologized as she sat down. "Minor issue with Jaina trying to kill Jag."

Cighal nodded. "It's about seven more weeks before I expect her to give birth. She is in a lot of discomfort so it is expected that she is extremely irritable."

"That wasn't the issue. Han comm-ed just as she was yelling at Jag, then Han wanted to kill Jag."

"It's fine, Leia," Luke said. "Mara and I were late as well, plus Kyp isn't here yet."

This drew more snickers and more groans. Leia seemed to be with the groaning party along with Tionne, Cilghal and the ever-silent Kyle Katarn, who seemed to also have an opinion on this. The ones who were snickering were Mara, Corran, Octa Ramis and Kam Solusar, who was getting the hairy eyeball from his wife. Saba Sebatyne simply seemed annoyed.

Luke was just confused.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Just as he said it, Kyp came through the doors, he was, for once, clean shaven. He had a smile on his face as he sat. "Hello masters. Hello Master Skywalker, Before you say anything, I want to make it clear. The coma? Yeah, it wasn't me this time."

Luke rolled his eyes. "So, every time your name pops up, everyone here either snickers or groans. Would someone let me in on the joke?"

Before Kyp could say anything, Corran blurted, "Kypie-poo here has a girlfriend."

The snickers turned into laughs and the groans; into face-palms.

"Huh?" Luke asked.

Cilghal rolled her big eyes. "I'm going to condense the story for you Luke because somebeings have things to do after this meeting. Master Durron started acting weird a few months back, Corran Horn suspected something so he stole Durron's datapad. He managed to read one message. It was from a 'L' to 'Kypie-poo'. It was a love letter. Durron got his datapad back before Horn could find out more."

Mara continued for the Mon Cal. "Kyp won't tell anyone who this 'L' is, apparently he's afraid we will scare her off, but Ben has met her, confirmed her existence, but has been blackmailed into secrecy."

Luke rolled his eyes. He should have known that antics like this would have gone on in his absence. "I'm going to just forget the last five minutes ever happened. Can we get on with this?"

. . .

Half way through the meeting, Mara was about ready to fall asleep. One of the knights on Kesh was giving the weekly report of the processions there and not much had happened besides Ben's and Veri's departure.

She looked beside her. Corran looked like he was dozing off. Luke was fast asleep, head lolling to one side.

Oh the irony! Usually he was the one giving her shavit for not paying attention in meetings.

She slowly reached over and repositioned his head, then tipped him back a bit. Mara then shrugged off her robe and placed it on top of her slumbering husband.

. . .

"Looks like Sleeping Beauty is starting to join us," a voice said as Luke opened his eyes. He came face to face with a smiling Corran horn.

"Oh, gods, did I fall asleep during the meeting?" he asked, blinking his eyes.

"Afraid so, Farmboy," Mara replied, taking her robe back and putting it on. "But don't worry, Corran nodded off a few times too."

"Did not," Corran said, with a yawn.

Mara rolled her eyes. "Anyways. We gotta go," she said, leading the way.

"Why?" Luke asked, following her.

"I've got a surprise for you."

"What?"

"Your son just passed Coruscant traffic control. He'll be landing any minute."

. . .

If he could have moved, Luke would have been twitching and jumping while he waited for the Kazismo's boarding ramp to lower. Mara was beside him with her hand on his shoulder. Luke could feel his son's radiant Force signature inside.

Then the ramp started to lower and there was a shadow at the top. Luke's anticipation grew as the bottom of the ramp gently came to a rest on the permacrete floor.

Artoo-Deetoo then came flying down as fast as the little droid could, buzzing and tweeting.

"Artoo!" Luke exclaimed, glad to see the droid that had become like family. He had known Artoo even before he had known Han.

The droid came to a stop at his feet and Luke looked up at Mara.

She knew what he wanted. She took his left hand and put it on top of the droid's dome.

Luke felt the similar coldness of the metal and smiled even more.

"Artoo! I told you to wait and help Veri!" a masculine voice said.

Luke's attention was then brought to the ramp again. There his son was walking down with a bag over his shoulder. Ben looked like a man. He was tall, about the height of Han - maybe even taller - and muscular, with blonde hair and wearing brown Jedi robes.

"Ben!" Luke shouted as tears streamed down his face.

Ben then dropped his bag and ran for his father. Within a moment Luke had, with a small bit of help from the Force, his arms around Ben's neck. Ben quickly undid the belts holding his father to the hover chair then picked him up and embracing him a hug that could have rivalled the late Chewbacca's.

"Dad," the man finally managed to choke out.

. . .

"Mmmm. That smells good," Ben said as he tried to levitate a nerf meatball out of the sauce it was cooking in. His mother was now making dinner after the family had spent the entire afternoon together. The back of his hand then met a wooden spoon before he could pull out of the way. "Ow, Mom!"

"No using the Force to get a sample of dinner," his mother scolded without real malice. "I know you are hungry -"

"No duh. I'm an eighteen-year-old Skywalker. I'm always hungry."

She rolled her eyes. "Did you finish setting the table, my ungrateful spawn?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, now go wake your father and get him to the table. Dinner is ready."

Ben gave her a genuine smile before going to the living room. His father was taking a nap in his form-foam lounger. He was reclined and his feet were up. His entire body was supported by the special memory foam. His parents had told him of his father's spinal cord injury. Ben had told them that he would take it on as his mission to help his father recover.

Ben put his hand on his father's shoulder. "Dad. Wakie Wakie. Time for dinner. Mom won't feed me till I get you up."

His father slowly stirred, which was very unlike him. Luke had been a soldier, so usually as soon as he was awoken, he was immediately alert.

He slowly opened his eyes and gave Ben a smile. "Is food all you worry about these days?"

"Yup." Ben was blunt. He then put an arm under his father's back and the other under his knees. Ben then easily lifted his father into his hover chair and strapped him in. The two were then off to the dining room.

. . .

Back in her quarters and unpacked, Veri opened a secure comm-link line.

"Father, I am back on Coruscant. I am succeeding in seducing the young Skywalker."

"Good, my daughter, though I think we have a better target to exact revenge on Mara Jade now," a raspy voice replied.

Veri knew who her father was talking about. "The elder Skywalker. What do you have in mind?"

"He is weak, feeble. Killing him will not be that hard, plus it will rip out her heart like she ripped out my hopes and dreams."


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: For those of you who are guests and are demanding updates: I have a life, a busy one at the moment. I am off to a wedding out of town tomorrow and I won't be back till Sunday night. Do not expect another chapter till Monday. After that, I swear I'll have it all posted in a week (mostly because I'm leaving the country on the 12th).**

Chapter 12

Over the next few days, Ben made sure his father was at ease with his son taking care of him. Ben was stronger than his mother and so taking care of Luke was not a big deal. Plus it was Ben's mission to care for his father, so he had nothing better to do with his time.

Today was Luke's first real physical therapy appointment. Ben had driven him to Ashlana Tano's building where the receptionist told them to go to a certain level and get changed into their swim trunks.

"You're not uncomfortable with this, are you Ben?" Luke asked as Ben, already in his blinding floral orange swim trunks, changed his father into his dark green swim shorts in the large changing room.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Dad. We went over this when I helped Mom bathe you. This is your revenge on me since I liked to run around naked when I was two."

"You were four when you went through that stage."

"Hey! Just be thankful I'm not still going through it," Ben retorted. "I'm not uncomfortable with this. Maybe if it were Mom it would be awkward. But we have the same parts, I assure you."

"The fact that you just said that without blushing is a tribute to how much you are your mother's son."

"Dad, the fact that I can name all the parts without turning beet red, doesn't mean I'm not your son too. I think this simply training for when you get really old and really grey and I have to change your diapers every single day for the rest of your crippled life."

"Have some respect for the elderly," Luke admonished as Ben lifted him back into his chair. "What does your mother call you again?"

"Ungrateful spawn?" Ben offered.

"Yes. Have some respect, my ungrateful spawn."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "I need some respect? According to Uncle Han, you had no respect at my age."

"Didn't your mother tell you anything? Don't listen to Uncle Han. He lies."

Ben rolled his eyes.

They then made their way out to the pool. Waiting for them was Ashlana Tano in a bathing suit.

"Hello Master Skywalker," she said. She then turned to Ben. "Hello, you must be Ben."

Ben smiled. "Yes," he said as he shook her hand. "You must be Ashlana Tano."

"I am. Luke, I see you have developed control of your neck over the past few days. Is there anything else you can move now?"

Luke smiled. "I can move my right elbow quite a bit, Mara has been helping me feed myself with my right arm, and I have some range with my shoulder." He showed her, flexing his elbow and shakily rising up his arm a bit.

Ashlana smiled. "Great. We'll see if we can improve that range today. We will focus on building up your upper body strength before we try anything like rolling over or transfers. Shall we get you in a life-vest and get in the pool?"

Luke nodded. Ashlana and Ben helped him into a life-vest then Ben picked his father up and started into the pool. As soon as the warm water touched Luke, he sighed in relief.

"He likes warm water. My mother and I have given him a warm ripple bath every day since I've been back," Ben explained as he let his father float.

Ashlana nodded. "Most patients with severe muscle atrophy do. The warmth relaxes while the water lets them be free of their hover chair and bed."

"It makes me feel like I'm almost normal again," Luke added as he let the small waves drift his arms and legs out. It felt good to be stretched out.

"It also prevents bedsores. Luke, if it comforts you, make Ben bathe you every day. It will only help you."

"And Dad," Ben added, "You know that neither mom or I mind doing it for you."

Luke smiled. "I know."

Ashlana then started the therapy session, getting Luke to move his arms and moving the for him. He had been able to put his right arm all the way above his head with the help of the water.

Near the end of the session she mentioned, "I want Ben to do some stretches with you in-between therapy sessions to maximise our sessions together." She then looked at Ben. "I'll get you a specific list, but I want you to concentrate on his arms."

Ben nodded. "I can do that."

"Luke, you're free from my torture for a few days. You did a lot today, so you may be sore tonight or tomorrow. Just take a warm bath, and maybe make Mara or Ben give you a massage. Once you guys get changed, I have something for you in my office." she said with a smile as she got out of the pool.

Ben got his father out of the pool, the life-vest off and looked at his hover chair. "Dad, do you mind if I carry you to the change room? I don't want you to be sitting in a wet chair for the rest of the day and complaining to me about it."

As much as Luke hated being carried anywhere, he had to admit, his son had a point. "Okay, but next time can we bring towels out of the change-room with us to line my chair with?"

"We can do that," Ben nodded, glad that they found a solution that made them both happy.

. . .

Once they were both showered and changed, Ben put his father back in his hover chair and made their way to Ashlana's office.

She smiled as they entered. She had a datachip and some sort of recording device. "Ben, here is the stretches I want you to do with your father," she said, handing him the chip. "And, Luke, I probably should have told you this earlier, but, my grandmother was a Jedi Padiwan in the Clone Wars."

"What?" Luke asked, astonished.

"There's more. She left the order just before the Emperor took over, therefore she somehow easily survived the purge on the togrutan home planet. She never talked much about her time as a Jedi, even after the Empire was defeated. A few years ago, after she died, a couple of my cousins and I were going through some of her stuff and we found this." She handed Luke the recording device. "It was her diary from when she was in the Clone Wars. My cousins and I spent the entire night watching it and we all learned a lot about the kind old togrutan that was our grandmama, including the fact that her Jedi Master was none other than the great Anakin Skywalker."

Luke was so shocked, he couldn't find words.

"When my cousins heard that I was treating you, they urged me to give it to you," she finished.

"Thank you, Ashlana, very much. Are you sure about this? It's a priceless family heirloom," Luke asked. He always dreamed about learning more about his father.

"Yes. We have many heirlooms from our packrat grandmother. Besides, we'd rather remember her as the kind old torgrutan that made us cookies than the Jedi Padiwan we never knew."

Luke inclined his head. "Thank you, again, for everything."

. . .

Ben got his father into the speeder and strapped into his seat. "Would you like to go to that café that we always used to go to?" he asked as he climbed in the other side.

"Yes, I would like that," Luke said as he stared at the diary in his lap.

Ben then drove to a place that he hadn't been in over four years: The Stone Leaf Café. He parked, got his father out and they started in to the small, cozy café decorated in browns with grey sicamum trees everywhere.

They were greeted by the owner, Makave Klan, a smiling zabrak. "Ah, the Skywalkers," he said. "I was wondering when you two would return. Ben, my boy, how you have grown!"

Ben smiled. "Thanks Makave. I know it's been years, but can we have our usual table in the back?"

"Sure. Right this way," the elder zabrak said, leading them to the back. He pulled a chair away from the similar table to let Luke drive up to it. "Will you two have the usual?"

"I will," Luke said.

"Can you get me a cup of caff instead of the hot chocolate?" Ben asked.

Makave smiled. "Sure, Ben. Luke, your boy has become a man."

Luke returned the smile. "I know."

Makave left, then came back with a cup of caff, a cup of hot chocolate and two puffy cakes.

Luke and Ben spent the afternoon eating their snacks and watching the diary of Ahsoka Tano. They both learned much about Anakin Skywalker.

Soon, Luke was starting to doze off. Between the physical therapy and the warm, sweet drink, Ben was surprised it didn't happen earlier. He cleaned his father up, gave him back the diary, paid Makave and started out.

By the time they got home, Ben had to direct his father's hover chair into the master bedroom since his father was sound asleep. He took his father's boots off and put him on the bed, covering him up with a throw blanket.

Ben then laid down on his mother's side of the bed to watch his dad sleep, completely at ease with the world.


	14. Chapter 13

AN: One scene in this chapter was inspired by Ginchy's fic True Love (it was some sort of challenge entry). The second half of this chapter has a lot of 'telling' not 'showing' and I really don't say much about the Solo's and Fels after this chapter because I had plans to do a spin-off short fic regarding the events. I may eventually get around to writing it, but not anytime soon.]

Chapter 13

"Are you sure you want to go Dad?" Ben asked his father as he finished tying Luke's bow-tie for him. Tonight there was a huge dinner and ball at the old Imperial Palace, celebrating the fourth anniversary of the joining of the Imperial Remnant and the Galactic Alliance. The Skywalkers had been invited, of course. "I know Mom wouldn't mind getting out of it."

Ben was in his tuxedo and was helping his father get into his. Luke had gained a lot more movement in his arms and torso in the past few weeks of physical therapy, though he still had weakness issues. Ben was concerned about his father because they had gone to a rigorous therapy session today so Ben knew his father was tired.

"Your mother is just going to have to suck it up. I want to go and I want to see Han, Leia, Jaina and Jag," Luke said as Ben handed him his lightsaber and he clipped it on his belt, not that he'd be using it any time soon. "Plus I want to meet this girl you're always sneaking off to see."

Ben turned red. He had invited Veri as his date. The Fels were picking them and her up, along with the Solos, in one of Jag's limos.

Mara then exited the refresher in a slimming blue dress. Her hair was in loose ringlets. "Are you two ready yet?" she asked, grabbing a shimmering grey shawl.

"Almost, Mom," Ben replied as he tied his father's shoes, then stood back up.

"You look lovely, Mara," Luke commented, reaching out his left hand to her.

"Thank you. You don't look half bad yourself, for a farmboy," she said with a smirk as she accepted his hand. "Come you two handsome men. I think the limo is here." She then led the way out.

. . .

Getting Luke into the limo had been a task. Unlike the family speeder, the limo's door was small and low to the ground. Mara ended up having to get in first and then Ben picked his father up out of the hover chair and handed him to her.

Once inside, Luke received a reassuring grin from Jaina, who was in Jag's arms. "Don't worry Uncle Luke. We had a harder time getting me in here," she said, patting her very swollen belly, as Mara and Ben moved Luke and themselves to their seats. Jaina was in a flowing purple dress while Jag was in a suit and tie.

"How long until I can call your father a grandpa?" Luke asked as the limo took off.

"According to Cilghal, one of them is so big, they are both going to come any day now, even though the due date is a month away," Jagged answered with a smile. He was ready to be a dad.

Luke had wished Mara's pregnancy could have been filled with as much joy as he was feeling from Jag and Jaina right now, but he knew he was lucky to have both of them here with him.

They then arrived at the Jedi Temple, and Ben jumped out to get Veri.

When they returned, Ben introduced the tanned, dark-haired girl in the olive green dress to his father.

"Dad, this is Veri Kayn. Veri, this is my dad."

"It's a pleasure," Luke said, holding out his hand. He got an odd feeling from the girl. Her thoughts and feelings were so blocked, he got nothing from her. Like she had something on her mind she wanted to hide. It wasn't suspicious necessarily, but it did make him wonder.

She took his hand and shook it gently. "It's an honour to finally meet you. Ben complains about you daily."

Luke laughed but found it odd that this girl's name was similar to "Vestara Khai", Ben's girlfriend in his dream that betrayed Ben and killed him.

Then they stopped at another apartment building and Han and Leia got in.

. . .

Dinner had been less than fabulous. They had been served soup, something Luke needed help eating or else he ended up wearing it. Luke had seen the glances from others as Mara fed him. Now it was time for awkward conversation.

"They say he should be in a nursing home with the type of care he needs, but apparently Ben and Mara are taking care of his every need, even bathing and dressing him. I hear she even has him set up so that they can sleep in the same bed together. She's so good to him."

That was the fifth comment Luke had caught like this. He had always been a gossip topic, ever since he destroyed the first Death Star, but this somehow hurt more than the usual whispers.

Mara wasn't simply 'good to him', she loved him. Luke knew this. He knew Mara liked sleeping with him as much as he did. She had been rather… boisterous about it last night.

He directed his hover chair out to the empty balcony. The air was cold, but it was nice to be away from the stuffy atmosphere inside.

"Skywalker? What are you doing out here?" he heard his wife say as she approached him. She kissed his cheek before kneeling at his side. It was nice not to be towered over for once.

"I was tired of hearing the comments. Maybe I shouldn't have come."

She smiled up at him and took his hand. "I've been hearing the comments too, Farmboy. Don't listen to them. They just don't understand the love we have."

He returned the smile. "Did I just hear the great Mara Jade Skywalker talk about love?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just shut up and let me kiss you."

He did.

"Now. I think your sister wants to dance with you, so I want to get a dance in before she steals you away from me."

"Dance?" he asked, confused.

"Yes. Dance. This is a ball you stupid farm kid. Dancing is what you do at a ball."

"Hey, watch the language. My question is how are we-"

She put her finger to his lips to shut him up. She then got up and sat sideways in his lap. She made his left hand go across her waist and rested his hand on her hip and put her arms around his neck.

"Now lets dance," she said.

He glided them back in to the dance floor and started moving his chair to the rhythm of the music.

Just after the first song was played, Mara felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Han. Behind him was Leia.

"Sorry, Kid. I have instructions from Leia to steal Mara from you," Han said, helping Mara to her feet.

Leia then took Mara's place.

The twins smiled at each other. They danced as they watched Han and Ben wildly twirl their partners. They laughed when Jagged tried to dance with Jaina, who wasn't in the best mood.

Then they both felt a flash of pain from Jaina who was rushing to get away from Jag. Luke and Leia, with Han, Mara and Jag hot on their heals, met up with her on the balcony. Mara mentally summoned Ben who came in a rush.

"Jaina, honey, what is it?" Leia asked.

Jaina saw her family and there was no use hiding what was going on from Jedi.

"The twins are on their way."

Both Jag and Han turned pale and nearly fainted.

"I was hoping I could make it through the night," Jaina continued. It was obvious she was having "baby brains" since a percentage of her oxygen that would be normally going to her brain was going to the children.

"We need to get her back to the Temple without anyone noticing," Jagged stated. It was already decided that Cilghal was going to deliver the children. The heirs to Jagged's empire and the Solo clan needed to be cared for by someone trustworthy, someplace secure.

They all knew the dilemma. They needed to get Jaina back to the temple before the media found out.

Jaina moaned in pain again. Han and Jag reached out to steady her.

"Oh, my. They are coming a lot quicker than I thought they would," Jaina groaned as water trickled on the tile between her feet.

Mara rubbed her temples. "Jaina. How long have you been having contractions?"

"Awhile," Jaina responded.

Han growled: "How long is awhile?"

"All evening."

Luke took control before Han could shoot anything, or Jag. "Oh, dear. Come, get on my lap," he gestured to Jaina, holding out his hand.

"Are you sure?" she said, looking like she needed to sit.

"Yes. We'll get you out of here before the media circus starts."

Jaina slowly sat on her uncle, feeling better to be off her feet.

Luke continued. "Jag, I need you to comm Cilghal. Tell her to send an unmarked speeder to meet us all at an obscure side entrance. Ben, Veri, I need you two to cause a distraction. Insult a bothan if you have to. Then take the limo back to the temple. Mara, can you push me while Jaina and I hold each other. If I look like I merely collapsed from exhaustion and Jaina is helping me, it won't cause as much interest."

. . .

They managed to get Jaina out without drawing any attention with the help of the Force and the scene Veri and Ben created when he purposefully spilt juice on her.

Now Veri was in her chambers and Ben was in his room in his parents' chambers in the Jedi temple.

Jaina was in the birthing room, screaming at Jag. She had been doing so for five hours. Han was pacing the hallway like a madman - Leia had stopped trying to calm him. She was meditating along with Mara. Luke was sound asleep. Mara debated taking him to their chambers, but he would probably kill her if she did.

. . .

"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the rest of his name was overcome by screaming. He was sitting, holding his wife's hand as she lay on the birthing table.

He tried to give her hand a reassuring squeeze, but he couldn't feel his fingers so he brushed her slick hair away from her eyes with his free hand. "You're doing great, Jaina," he reassured her.

She shot him a glare and continued screaming.

"The first one is almost out, one more push Jaina," Cilghal encouraged from the business end of the bed.

Jaina screamed again, then more cries joined her. Jaina then quieted as she huffed for air while the other cries continued.

Jagged was summoned to the end of the bed where he gazed upon his son for the first time. The babe was big for a newborn and wailing at the top of his lungs. Jag felt tears welling up as he was allowed to cut the umbilical cord before the child was whisked away to be cleaned up. Jag returned to Jaina's side.

"It's a boy," he said with a smile.

She smiled. "I was right." There was a long going bet between the couple: what gender would the babies be. Jag was adamant that there would be one of each while Jaina knew they were both boys.

"His brother is coming," she continued, breathlessly.

"Sister," Jag corrected.

"Brother."

Painful minutes later, Jaina gave one final push and felt her second son enter the world.

Jag heard the sobs, a bit weaker this time, and went back to the end of the bed. He indeed had a second son. The younger one was smaller, much smaller than his brother. Jag cut the cord as tears stained his face.

The child was carried away by Cilghal herself to give him the best care while Jaina was tended on by various other healers. Jag gave her a kiss before going off to face Han.

"Wait," Jaina said, turning white. She screamed.

"Jaina?!" Jag said in a panic as his wife passed out.

. . .

Hours later Jagged Fel sat alone with his youngest son; his third son. The past few hours had been a nightmare. Simply explained, Jaina had been pregnant with triplets. The third triplet had developed in Jaina's fallopian tube. Normally a fallopian pregnancy in humans resulted in a miscarriage early on in the pregnancy. But in Jaina's case it hadn't.

The halls of healing were now crawling with family. Jag was just thankful only one person was allowed to be in the NNICU. He needed some time alone with his son. He was pretty sure his other sons were with Mara and Luke. Han, Ben and Leia were with Jaina. She had lost a lot of blood. Her fallopian tube had pretty much exploded. Ben and Leia were sharing their blood supply with her since they all had the same blood type. Jag's parents were on their way.

Mara stuck her head in the room. "Hey. Jaina just woke up. Leia filled her in on what happened and she's demanding to see her sons."

Jag look to Tekli. "Can we take him to see Jaina?" Jag's third son was small, underdeveloped and currently in an incubator.

Tekli sighed softly. "Okay. But I really shouldn't be doing this. Only for a few minutes and he'll need to stay in his incubator."

Jag nodded.

. . .

Jaina felt like death warmed over. Her father was holding her hand while her mother and cousin gave her blood. Ben and Leia laid in cots to one side of her.

She looked up to see Jag enter with two bundles. Behind him Tekli pushed in an incubation pod. Luke and Mara entered behind them. "We'll leave the Solos alone," Mara said as they closed the curtain separating them and Ben from the rest of the room.

Tekli pushed the incubation pod beside Jaina's bed then took a step back.

Jaina looked at her tiny son floating in incubation bacta. "How could I not know he was there?"

Jag came to her side and kissed her forehead. "No one knew. Even if we had, there is nothing we could have done but worry." He sighed. "Now. I think your sons want to meet you." He handed her both of his bundles.

She took them gingerly and looked from their faces to the face of the babe in the incubator. "Have you named them yet?"

"No, that's your job. You did all the work."

"Really? Thanks," Jaina replied sarcastically. They had discussed a lot of names. "Well, the eldest should be Anakin Fel."

"Of course," Jag said with a smile.

"The second should be Antillies Fel."

"I love it."

"And for this little guy," Jaina sighed. "I've run out of 'A' names."

Jag scrunched his lips in thought. "I've got nothing."

"How about Han?" Han suggested.

"That doesn't start with an A," Leia said, cuffing her husband.

"But I like it. Han-Soontir Fel. There. We have our sons," Jaina said. "Anakin, Antillies and Han-Soontir.

. . .

Later, Mara thought it best to get Luke to bed. Leia thanked them before they started for their chambers in the Jedi temple.

Once they were a good distance away, Luke looked up at Mara. "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course."

"Han and Leia were already grandparents. I mean before tonight."

Mara stopped and looked at him like he had two heads.

"In my dream, the one I had while I was in the coma, the Force, I think, revealed to me that Allana, Tenel Ka's little girl, was Jacen's daughter."

She was silent for a few moments, then nodded. "That does make sense. When I last saw Allana… there was something… overly familiar about her. What do we do with this information?"

"Nothing," Luke said, flatly. "Tenel is doing the right thing by not telling anyone, neither should we. I may confide in her the next time I see her, but no one else is to know. Han and Leia cannot know. We will keep a watchful eye on the little girl, nothing more, for her own safety."

"Alright," Mara nodded as they entered their chambers. "Besides, Han is already sharing three grandchildren with Soontir Fel, he probably does not want to know he also shares one with Isolder."


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Ben, I am your father!"

"Shut up, Dad."

Mara sat in the armchair in her living room, sipping her caff as she checked her mail on her datapad one weekend morning. Her husband, supported by a million pillows, and son were sitting on the floor, playing "Galactic Heroes: Jedi and Sith" on the XiIi, a video game console. She glanced up to see a computerized Darth Vader slice a computerized version of her husband in two. A large KO appeared on the screen.

"Ha! I win again!" Luke announced, rising both arms in victory. He had been playing as his father.

"You suck," Ben announced, he had been playing as his own father. "Both you and the video game version of you."

"Want to try again?"

"Only if I get to play as mom," Ben said as he selected 'Mara Jade (Skywalker)' from the character selection menu. "Now I can use a lightsaber and blasters."

"Fine," Luke huffed. "I'm being Yoda," he announced as he selected the Jedi Master.

"DAD! THAT IS NOT FAIR AND YOU KNOW IT!"

Mara rolled her eyes but chuckled as she returned to reading her mail. The chuckling immediately ceased as next piece of mail popped up on her screen.

**To: Mara Jade Skywalker**

**From: Shern Mosar**

**Subject: Information**

Mara gasped. Dr. Shern Mosar was a man few people knew. He had been Emperor Palpatine's personal physician. Mara had met the man a few times, briefly. His identity and job had been kept top secret during the Emperor's reign for Palpatine's safety and for his own and, to her knowledge, he had slipped into oblivion after the Emperor's death. It baffled Mara why he was contacting her now. Even though his name hadn't entered in mind in years, decades even, she figured the man must be long dead by now.

"Mara?" Luke asked, pausing the game as he sensed her uneasiness and confusion. He did his best to turn his head to look at her. "What is it?"

"Just a letter from someone odd," she replied as she opened the message and started reading.

_Dear Mrs. Mara Jade Skywalker_

_I am Doctor Shern Mosar and I am sure you remember who I am, even though our handful of meetings were short and over four decades ago. To make this simple: I am dying and I do not want to die with some things on my conscience. I've already made my peace with the galaxy for keeping the Emperor alive when I had so many chances to kill him by donating my fortune to building a med-center in one of the poorest provinces of Ryloth. But I want to cleanse my heart the most hideous crime I believe I committed. I know who your father was. If you come to _

_Chandrila, I will be able to give you this information._

_-S. Mosar_

"Mara?" Luke asked again. She was too shocked to hear him. She was too shocked to form coherent thoughts.

"Mom?" Ben got up from the floor and sat at her side. He wrapped an arm around her as he read over her shoulder. He then took the datapad out of her hands and handed it to his father as he wrapped her in a hug.

"Mara, do you want to go to Chandrila?" Luke asked once he was done reading.

After a few moments of stillness, Mara nodded.

. . .

After the twelve hour trip to Chandrila, Luke felt horrible. Both Ashlana Tano and Cilghal were wary about letting him go into hyperspace, even if it was only a half of a day, but they had let him. His body, especially his joints, hurt more because of the strain of hyperspace on his still weak body.

"I'll give you a nice massage once we are back on the ship and a long hot ripple bath once we are home," Mara promised him as they made their way through the halls of the nursing home where Shern Mosar was being cared for.

"Thank you." Luke was not only thanking his wife for the promise to relieve his aches, but also for not putting him in a nursing home. Death bogged down the Force here, even though the atmosphere was otherwise pleasant.

They entered Shern's room to see a very elderly man sitting in a bed, being tended to by a woman in her mid-30's. They both looked up and smiled kindly.

"Mara Jade Skywalker," Shern said with a smile. Although they had not met in forty years, they felt, somehow connected. Both had served the Emperor willingly and they had both sought to be forgiven by the galaxy.

"Dr. Mosar, it's a pleasure to see you again. I'd like you to meet my husband, Luke, and my son, Ben."

"Hello," Shern greeted them. "This is my granddaughter, Neilani."

"Hello, it's an honour to meet you all," Neilani said as she held her grandfather's hand.

Shern then got right to business. "Mrs. Skywalker, I wish I were delivering you better news, but I want to thank you for seeing me and lifting this crushing weight from my chest."

Mara nodded. "If the identity of my father is coming from you, it can't be good. He was one of the Imperial Guards, wasn't he?"

Shern gave her a sympathetic look. "If it was only that simple. Please, sit down. I should start

from the beginning."

She did as she was told, sitting at his side, allowing him to continue.

"As you know, Palpatine attempted to create a child," Shern began.

"Triclops," Mara nodded, telling Shern he did not need to waste his time with explaining that convoluted story.

"Yes. After Palpatine sensed that the attempt failed, seventeen years before the Battle of Yavin, Palpatine came to me about creating a child in a more typical way. He wanted a Force sensitive heir in case he died and was unable to come back again."

Mara nodded. "Yes, and four years before the Battle of Yavin, Ensori was born."

"Ensori?" Ben asked, confused. He had been following the conversation up until that point.

Mara turned around to face her son. "Ensori was Palpatine's bratty son. Not many people knew about him. His mother died giving birth to the hideous thing and he was raised in the Imperial Palace by nannies and the occasional unfortunate Emperor's underlings that got put on 'Ensori Duty' until the Emperor died. After that, no one knows what happened to him. I always assumed that his nannies knew what danger he was in if his parentage was discovered by the Rebel Alliance and later New Republic, so they gave him a new identity."

"I assume that is what happened to him too," Shern nodded. "But, he was not the only child born to a woman whom I fertilized with Palpatine's seed."

Mara stared at him, wide eyed. "Palpatine had more children?"

Shern nodded, sadly. "He only had one other child created by in vitro fertilization. Eight years before his death was the second time he asked me. The first was twenty-one years before he died. I'm sorry Mara. You were Palpatine's first child. You were raised by surrogate parents before he took you to begin your training."

Like the assassin and the Jedi Master she was, Mara betrayed no outward emotion, but inside she was bursting with confusion, anger and sadness.

"Your mother was a concubine, like Ensori's and like his mother, I have no idea what happened to her after you were born. I regret not knowing her name, but she was a beautiful woman. You have her eyes."

After a few moments of silence, she finally mumbled to no one in particular, "I probably killed her. I killed her with the dark side when I took my first breath…. He was my father. My father?" She then addressed Shern again. "I… I have to go," she said, on the verge of crumbling as she got up. "Goodbye Shern." She then bolted from the room.

"Thank you for telling us this Dr. Shern," Luke said still shocked and uneasy. He just wanted to go see his wife. "I know it looks like she is taking it bad, but she is a strong woman. Knowing may hurt now, but she will adjust in time."

"I'm sorry to have caused her that much pain, but I thought if she knew, it would explain why she felt like she had to love him when she was a child. Tell her I owe her much gratitude, I just could not die with that deed on my soul."

Luke smiled. "I thank you for that deed. It might have given Palpatine an heir, but it also gave me the love of my life. Now if you'll excuse us, we'd better go see how she is. Goodbye Dr. Mosar."

Shern tipped his head. "Goodbye."

Luke and Ben were then quickly making their way back to the Jade Shadow in Mara's wake. When they got there, they sensed Mara in the locked cockpit.

"Mara?" Luke called. He tried to sense her emotions but her mind was shielded by thick walls.

"I'm starting the ship up. Go strap in," came her bland, emotionless response.

Luke let his wife have her privacy but sent her waves of love in the Force. He then turned to Ben. "Come, I need you to strap me in," he said, leading the way to the main hold.

"What do we do?" Ben asked once they were both strapped in.

Luke sighed. "We let your mother have her privacy. She needs to organize her thoughts and feelings. She will open up to us when she is ready, with a bit of encouraging."

Ben nodded.

"What do you think about all this?" Luke asked.

Ben shrugged. "To be honest, I don't see how it changes anything, for me at least. My heritage is messed up to begin with."

Luke nodded. "After having one Sith Lord as a grandfather, finding out you have another doesn't seem like a big deal."

"Exactly. It doesn't change who I am or who I will become. I feel bad for Mom, and you and everyone else hurt by him but Palpatine being my grandfather has little effect on my life. He's still just some dead dude in the history holos. I just happen to be related to him now."

Luke groaned. "Spoken like a true eighteen year old. Now I feel old."

"Dad, I hate to break it to you, but you are old."

He glared at his son. "Thanks," he said, dripping with sarcasm. "Is that who I am? Some famous old dude you are related to?"

Ben smiled. "You are much more than that. You're my dad. Because you raised me and are such a good father, I am honoured to say that you're my dad." He then kissed his father on the forehead, filling Luke with joy. His eighteen year old son was not ashamed to kiss him. "Now, tip yourself back and I'll start working those pains out of your legs."

. . .

Two hours into the flight back home, Luke was in agony. He was tired, his body ached, despite the fact that Ben was doing his best to try to relive the stress on his body, and Mara still hadn't come out of the cockpit.

"Ben, why don't you go get some shut eye? We're both tired. I'm going to try to get your mom out of her hiding spot."

"Alright," Ben said, placing his father's feet back on the hover chair's footrest. "If you need help, just call me."

Luke nodded, then made his way to the cockpit door. "Mara? Mara?" he called. "Come to bed with me, please?"

A few moments later the door slid open, and Mara walked out, emotionless and icy. She led the way to their cabin in silence and dressed and prepared them for bed without saying a word.

When it was time for him to be transferred to the bed, he parked himself beside the bed and waited for Mara's help. She came over and put her hands on his hips as he gripped the arms of the hover chair and pushed himself up. Over the past few weeks, they had been trying a new transferring method, which created less strain on Mara and got Luke using his arms to move his body.

Luke gasped from the weight being put on his sore arms and both gave out half way through the transfer process. Mara had been off in her own world and had not been ready. Both tumbled to the ground, Mara underneath Luke.

"Luke, I am so sorry. Here I'll get you up," she said in a hurry.

Luke disagreed with her plans. He pinned her down with the Force. A very, very necessary use of the Force. "No. I'm just getting comfortable," he said with a sly grin as he brushed Mara's hair out of her face. He knew what Mara needed at this moment: a good laugh, then they could talk with ease.

Unfortunately, he wasn't rewarded with one. "Luke, please."

"Please what? Kiss you? Alright." He did just that.

"Luke, you're intolerable," she huffed.

"That's why you married me," he said with his best Solo lopsided grin impression.

She rolled her eyes. Okay, so it wasn't a laugh, but it was close. She then lifted him up and put him on the bed, chest down. She then walked around to the other side and sat beside him.

"You didn't hurt anything, did you?" she asked, rubbing his back. Luke was glad that he temporarily got her mind distracted, but he needed to know how she was dealing with the new discovery.

"Nothing that didn't hurt before. Ah, that feels good," he said as she rubbed a knot out of his back. "You didn't hurt anything, did you?"

"No, I'm unscathed."

Silence fell over the room as Mara continued to rub Luke's pains. He gingerly reached his arm out to put it on her knee. He gave it a firm squeeze and looked into her eyes. "Mara, just listen. I know you aren't ready to talk, I respect that and even though I have the urge to help you, I won't until you are ready. Just remember that I have been through something similar to this before and I'm here to help. Most of all, remember that both Ben and I love you. We will always love you."

Mara nodded, but did not say anything. A few minutes of massaging later, she broke down into tears. She hadn't been acting life herself all evening and this was even more unlike her, but Luke could understand why.

"Come here," he said softly. Within moments, he was on his side and she had her arms wrapped tightly around his torso. He gently rubbed the back of her head and she got them under the blankets as she continued to soak his tunic with her tears.

"I'm here, just let it out and don't worry about a thing," he said, quoting the comforting words Leia had said to him after Darth Vader had uttered those words: I am your father.

"He was my father. My father!" she half wept, half shouted into his shoulder. "He tortured me. I was his tool. Just a tool! He never showed me any love, Yet I loved him..." the rest of her rant became sobs. Her tears were that of anger, sadness, confusion and a million feelings running threw her heart.

"Hush. It'll be alright," he said, trying to calm her.

"I don't deserve you," she sobbed.

He brought his hand to her cheek to wipe away tears and to make her look into his eyes. "Don't you dare think that again," his voice had an edge to it. "You are not your father. If you are then that means I'm my father, then that means we still deserve each other. I love you and don't you dare ever doubt that." He then put her head back on his chest and held it close to his heart.

Slowly, her sobs became silent and she faded into sleep still clutching to his tear-soaked tunic.

. . .

Although he was tired, Luke meditated while Mara slept peacefully in his arms. Although her hair was messed up and tears stained her face, she had a look of deep serenity that sleep gave her. He needed to be alert when she woke.

When she started to stir, he brushed his knuckles along her cheek. She opened her eyes to a caring smile and kind blue eyes.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"Just peachy," she said, sarcastically, but without malice. The truth was, she was feeling much better.

Luke let out a small chuckle. "There's my beautiful wife. I've missed you. Can we talk about this?"

"I thought you were going to wait till I was ready."

"You know I jump at the chance to help people. Now that I'm physically dependant on you and Ben, those chances are few and far between."

"Are you saying if I let you help me, I'll actually be helping you?"

"Yup. Sneaky, right?"

"No, not at all," Mara said bluntly. "But I suppose I'll reward you for trying. Where do you want me to start Dr. Phille? I just found out that my father was Emperor Palpatine: killer of billions and lover of nothing. I'm now going to have daddy issues and a PR nightmare."

"First of all, I'm not some Holoshow psychologist. Second, the public does not have to know about this. We won't even tell Leia if you don't want to."

"No. I'm perfectly fine with the public not knowing but we'd better tell Leia. She is way too snoopy and you suck at keeping secrets from her."

"Alright. Third. It's alright to have daddy issues, I have them. I have lots of them. It's fine, as long as you talk to me. Don't keep things bottled up. Just talk to me, promise?"

Mara rolled her eyes. "I promise."

"Good. Can we snuggle now?"

"Of course," Mara said, taking him even closer.


	16. Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Epilogue

A/N: First of all, I would like to thank everyone for reading and reviewing. I leave first thing Wednesday morning for my vacation, so I'm posting the rest of this now. I had no idea where this rewrite was going when I was asked to repost this, but I am happy with the result. Of course, with the whole paralysis change, the sequel "Home" (which was posted on TFN before it got glichy) no longer fits with this version. I probably won't be revising/reposting that story (because I hated that fic and if I were to revise it, I would have to completely re-write it and my muse doesn't want to do that) so don't even ask. I may one day re-write a new sequel, but chances are slim.

Chapter 15

"Skywalker, I gotta get going."

"No. I don't want you to go."

"Skywalker. Come on, move your arm.

"No," he repeated. Luke was in bed, with his wife. She had to leave for Kesh at an unholy hour this morning on official Jedi business to welcome the planet into the New Empire. She would be gone for three weeks and he couldn't go with her because he couldn't spend the week in hyperspace needed to get there.

"The faster you let me leave, the faster I get back. Now move your arm so I can go have a sanisteam."

"Fine," Luke muttered.

"Oh, stop sulking," Mara groaned as she rolled out of bed.

. . .

After her sanisteam, Mara came back into her room to get her bag and to kiss her husband goodbye. He, of course, was sound asleep, snoring away. She didn't want to wake him; even a few months after he woke from his coma Luke still had exhaustion issues. So she kissed his cheek in his slumber and left.

. . .

Veri never let an opportunity slip through her fingers. So when Ben called her, asking her to get his father up and feed the old geezer breakfast while he dealt with Master Durron's latest fiasco, she, of course, had said yes.

Quickly dressing in the early dawn light, she slipped a vial of poison in her pocket. The poison; clear, odourless and tasteless, would mimic the effects of a massive seizure, stopping the heart of whoever drank even a drop.

She also slipped another vial out of her hidden cubby in her room. With this one, she poured the red liquid into her eyes. They absorbed it quickly and the Ysalamiri blood went straight to her brain. It would block her from the Force for about a day, but now, no Force-user could read her thoughts or sense her intentions. She used Ysalamiri blood whenever dealing with Mara Jade Skywalker, her father's enemy… and half-sister.

. . .

Luke woke when he felt a strange presence enter his room. He opened his eyes to see Veri Kayn walk in.

"Good morning, Master Skywalker," she said with a bow. "Ben had to leave for a few minutes, Master Durron got into some sort of trouble."

"Again?" Luke asked. Ben was often rushing off to bail Kyp out of something stupid. Luke knew the girl was not lying to him, he could sense both Ben, annoyed, and Kyp, embarrassed, in the same area across the planet. Still, Luke couldn't help but be suspicious of this girl. He could get nothing off of her from the Force.

"Again," she confirmed. "So Ben asked me to come and get you into your chair once you woke and get you your breakfast."

He was wary of her but he did not let her see this. "Alright. Thank you," he said, pushing blankets off of himself, revealing his night-pants and under tunic clad body. She helped him slide his body into his hover chair and positioned his feet.

"I made caf," Veri offered as she followed him out into the kitchen. She got the caf pot and poured him a mug. Oddly, there was just enough caf in the pot for one mug. She immediately put the pot in the washer. "What do you take in it?"

"Blue milk," he replied, playing along. He actually hated caf in the morning. He was a hot chocolate guy.

She prepared his caf for him and set the mug in front of him on the table. "Um… Do you need any help? I noticed at the ball a few weeks ago, Mara was feeding you."

Luke waved her off with an overly shaky hand. He was playing his tremor up. "No, no. But could you get me a nichi-nut bran muffin. Mara has me on this horrible bran diet. They are in that container on the counter."

"Sure," she said, turning her back.

As soon as Veri turned her back, Luke heard a voice in his head: don't drink it. Luke listened. Making it look like he was trying to pick up the mug with his shaking hands, he spilled the boiling liquid all over himself.

Veri gasped when she suddenly turned around.

"Useless arms!" Luke cried, keeping up his act. Then he noticed the burning hot liquid eating his clothing. Either the girl made some bad caf, or she had put something into it.

Ben then came rushing into the apartment with a box and a tray of drinks from the Stone Leif Café, which he put down as he rushed to his father's aid.

"Dad, Dad. It'll be alright," Ben said as he picked up and stripped his father. Thankfully the caf had barely touched Luke's skin. Ben now held his dad, only clad in his underwear, in his arms. "I'm going to put you in the ripple bath."

"I am so sorry Ben," Veri apologised.

He flashed her a smile. "It's alright. It isn't your fault. My father and I were planning on going to the museum later. Would you like to join us?"

Veri smiled. "Sure. I'll make up for this fiasco there," she promised.

Something sank in Luke's gut. Could he really tell Ben that his girlfriend was out to kill him?

. . .

"Ben?" Luke asked his son as the two made their way across a long walkway, hundreds of meters in the air. After Luke's impromptu ripple bath, Ben had dressed him in his typical Jedi robes.

"Yes, Dad?"

Luke cringed. He knew how much Ben like Veri. "Do you know much about Veri?"

"Of course. We have been dating for almost six months. She's protective of her past, I don't know much about her family life but that isn't unusual. She really is a sweet girl, isn't she?"

"About that. I don't think she actually likes you. I think she is using you."

Luke felt the annoyance and anger roll off Ben. "Kyp and Uncle Han said the same thing when I started dating her. You guys have no right. Just because she isn't an open book does not mean she has evil intentions," Ben fumed, trying to stay calm.

"Ben. I'm only asking because-" Luke then felt immediate danger in the Force. They were in the center of the walkway. Letting the Force take control of his body, he Force-shoved every being off the walkway to safety. That was when the bombs detonated beneath him.

. . .

Everything happened in an instant. One second, Ben was defending his girlfriend's honour, the next, he felt his father shoving him and the rest of the crowd to the safety of the building at the end of the walkway. Ben managed to catch his father's eyes, blue and full of pain, before everything went to hell.

Fire and smoke filled his vision.

He knew he must have screamed for his dad, but everything was muted.

Then a flash of tanned skin caught his eye on the other side of the fireball.

Veri.

Damn. His father was right!

Father.

Ben rushed forward and jumped off the end of the burning walkway. Slowing his decent as much as he could, Ben landed on another walkway, fifty metres down.

There, his father had landed. Luke and his bright blue hover chair had landed on their side, both were singed and broken. Blood flowed from his father.

Ben rushed to his father's side.

"CILGHAL I NEED A MEDICAL SPEEDER HERE, NOW!" he screamed into his commlink.

He then got his father out of the hover chair and cradled him in his arms.

. . .

Mara instantly dropped to her knees inside the Jade Shadow as terrible pain coursed through her body.

"Luke!"

She had to get back to Corucant. She had to get back there now.

. . .

There was smoke, fire, pain and screams, but Luke didn't notice any of it. He only felt the hands of the Force and the love of those lost surround him as he fell. He must have blacked out because the next thing he knew, he was in Ben's arms, looking up at his son.

"Dad! Dad! I've got you. You're going to be fine, alright? You have to make it. Just stay with me, Cilghal is on her way, just stay with me," Ben pleaded.

Luke tried his best to smile. "I love you Ben," he whispered as his head lolled back and darkness took over.

Chapter 16

Waiting was of the Dark Side. Ben knew this for a fact. He had been allowed in the medical transport when the healers had arrived, and had held his father's hand all the way to the Jedi temple. Once they arrived, however, he had been forced to wait in the waiting room.

None of his family had arrived yet, thankfully. It was easier to pace like a madman when you were alone.

"Ben?" Kyle Katarn said, entering the waiting room.

. . .

Ben snapped to attention, allowing the master to continue.

"I've been assigned the investigation into the bombing attack on your father. Several witnesses say they saw a girl matching Veri Kayn's description fleeing the scene just after the bombs went off. Can you confirm this?"

Ben closed his eyes and sank back into one of the chairs. This couldn't be right. Veri was a nice girl. He loved her. He paled when he remembered his conversation he was having with his father when the bombs had gone off.

"Ben? Was it Veri? I need to know," Katarn asked.

Then, another being entered the room, Cilghal. "Ben. Your father is out of surgery. He is too weak to be put in a bacta tank so we have him wrapped in bacta-bandages and he is in one of the recovery rooms, you can see him once you tell Master Katarn what you know."

Great. Now he had two masters interrogating him. This couldn't be happening. Veri was a nice girl. She had no reasons to kill his father.

"Ben," Cilghal urged. "I don't want your father waking to find that he is by himself. He will worry and your father's body cannot take any stress right now."

Ben closed his eyes. "It was Veri. But she is a good girl, there is no way she did this on her own. Once you obtain her, could I see her?"

Master Katarn nodded. "I'll see what I can do. But your first concern should be your father."

Ben nodded. "He is. May I see him?" he asked as Katarn hurried off.

Cilghal nodded. "Yes, but before we go in there, you should know that, while your father may look in bad shape, he actually fared pretty well considering what happened to him. He has several minor burns, a few broken ribs on his left side and his left arm is broken in several places. Because of this, we have immobilised his left arm and it is to stay immobile. He also has a hairline fracture on the left side of his skull, so he may be dizzy and he will have to stay here for a while. Come, follow me."

Cilghal led Ben to one of the recovery rooms. It had a large window so that the healers could monitor his father without disturbing him. Ben's heart sank when he saw that his father was hooked up to so many machines again. His entire arm was in a brace and he was covered in bacta-bandages. Ben felt like it was all his fault.

He kept his calm as he entered and sat by his father's side, holding his hand.

"It'll be awhile before he wakes," Cilghal informed him. "He has a concussion and needs his rest, so when he does wake, talk to him for a little bit but urge him to sleep. I'll be checking on him every once and awhile." She then left.

. . .

That afternoon was a long one for Ben. He could sense his entire family comfort him in the Force, and Uncle Han and Aunt Leia had even come to check on him, but they were ushered out. His father wasn't allowed too much stimulation when he woke. If he ever did.

Ben started to become fearful but his fears were all washed away when his father started moaning just after dinner time.

"Dad?" Ben stood up so that his father could see him clearly but still held his father's unharmed right hand. When his father opened his eyes, Ben smiled. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

"My head is killing me."

Ben continued smiling. "Well, you did fall fifty metres. Get some more rest. I have to go deal with something but I'll be back within an hour and Mom is expected to be back soon."

"Alright," Luke said, settling back into his pillow and closing his eyes. "Get the lights on the way out please."

"Yes Dad," Ben obediently replied, making his way out.

"And Ben?"

"Mmmhmm?"

"I'm sorry about Veri. I know how much you liked her."

. . .

Ensori Kayn, son of Palpatine, grumbled as he switched off the holonet. It seemed that his daughter's attempt on Luke Skywalker's life failed miserably.

Skywalker was still very much alive and his failure of a daughter was in Jedi hands. He knew his daughter was too soft.

Standing up and smoothing back his auburn hair, he clipped his lightsaber to his belt and headed out from his apartment.

He would have to kill Skywalker as revenge on his half-sister.

. . .

Ben felt icy cold as he walked through the bleak hallway of the detention center. He was following Master Katarn to Veri's interrogation chamber.

"Why are there no Ysalamiri?" Ben asked.

"That seems to be the one thing we have been able to get out of her. She told us she took Ysalamiri blood. I had Tionne research it and apparently if a Force sensitive gets Ysalamiri blood to their brain, either by ingesting it or another method, it will cut off their mind from all other Force users but it will also cut them off from the Force for about a day."

"Handy trick," Ben muttered. When they got to the interrogation chamber, Ben turned to the master. "Could I have some time alone with her?"

"Certainly. I will be behind the mirror, in the next room." Katarn then let him in.

Veri's hair and robes were dishevelled and she was stun-cuffed to her chair.

"You have to help me Ben!" she pleaded. "They think I had something to do with the explosion that almost killed your father." It was obvious that she was trying to salvage their relationship so she could get close to him again.

"Quit the act, Veri," Ben spat, surprised by his own words. Instead of sitting in the chair across from her, he paced the room. He would get her to admit it all. No one almost kills his father and gets away with it.

"It's not an act Ben! You have to believe me," she begged.

Maybe if he told her that she succeeded in her goal, then she would 'take credit' for it. She had no way to tell that he was lying.

"He's dead!" he shouted at her. "He died in my arms after the healers realized there was nothing that could be done for him! You didn't almost kill him. You did!"

A sickly smile formed on her face. "Good. That means I can stop this performance. I was getting sick of acting like your mother so that I could seduce you. She's a pathetic woman. I'm glad to have ripped out her heart for my father."

"Your father?!" He knew Veri wasn't completely evil, she had been working for her father.

"Ensori Kayn. Born simply Ensori, son of Emperor Palpatine."

Ben could have vomited, and not only because he had kissed his cousin - thank the maker that their romance hadn't escalated.

Then he realized that Ensori, his uncle - or half-uncle, was still out there. His father was still in danger.

With a flurry, he started to run back to his father.

. . .

The soft sliding of the door woke Luke from his slumber. He could sense someone in the far corner of his room. Someone with evil intentions.

"Hello?" he called out softly as he reached out to turn the lights on with the Force. As soon as the overhead lights came on, a black figure lunged forward, activating his burning red lightsaber. In that same instant, Luke called his own lightsaber to his hand and blocked the blow with his one good arm.

It was then that Luke saw who it was. A tall white man with auburn hair and yellow eyes. Palpatine's yellow eyes.

Luke reached out into the man's mind and retrieved a name.

Ensori.

Luke knew he physically could not defeat this man, but all he had to do was fend him off until someone came to his rescue. It shouldn't take long, he hoped. Ensori wasn't that bright. They were in the Jedi temple! Someone would come to his aid.

Buying himself time, he pushed Ensori back with all his might and flipped off the bed, landing on the ground, suppressing a cry of pain. Luke then flipped the bed over, giving himself some cover.

Then, Luke heard the three most beautiful sounds in his life: the door hissing open, the snap-hiss of a lightsaber and his wife's voice.

"Hello there," Luke could hear the smirk on her face. "Nice to see you again, little brother. I see you have met my husband."

"So," Ensori said, turning to face her, "You found out about your heritage."

"Indeed," Mara said, keeping her guard up. "How do you know about our relation?"

"Our father told me days before your husband killed him."

Mara gave him an annoyed look. "Is that what this is about? Vader killed our father, it isn't just propaganda."

"Which Skywalker killed our father isn't important to my reason for being here. You, Mara, are the reason. You denied your destiny. You left me to be raised by nannies when you could have taken care of me. We could have ruled the galaxy together as brother and sister. Instead, you married Skywalker. For that, your heart shall suffer."

Mara rolled her eyes, but did not waste her breath in defending her position: she hadn't even known that they were siblings.

The dance of the lightsabers began and it was obvious that Ensori was not an experienced lightsaber combatant. Mara easily blocked his awkward blows, she had been, after all, trained by the great Luke Skywalker.

It wasn't long before the door opened again and Ben rushed in with several other Jedi, including Masters Katarn and Durron.

As a last ditch effort, Ensori turned his blade off, faking a surrender to which all the Jedi did the same, when purple lightening started to crackle in his hand.

Ben knew what was coming next. Before Ensori could electrocute the bed and the frail Luke Skywalker beneath it, Ben jumped in the way catching the bolt in the stomach.

Ensori was restrained within the second and was dragged out.

Mara clipped her lightsaber to her belt and knelt at her son's side. "Is my baby alright?" she asked as she pulled him into her lap, stroking his head.

"Yes, Mom," Ben said, weak but still strong enough to be annoyed by the babying.

. . .

Mara soon found herself between two medcenter beds. Her husband lay in one, not looking too bad for a man who had survived three assassination attempts in one day. Her son lay in the other. Ben had insisted that he was fine, but Cilghal had made him get into a bed and hooked him up to a drip anyways.

"Mara? Could you hand me my blue milk pouch?" Luke asked. The lights were dimmed, but none of them were asleep. They were simply enjoying a quiet evening.

"Sure," Mara said, handing him the pouch as she smiled. She then turned to Ben, "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No. I think I'm going to be sick."

"I thought you were 'alright'," Mara said.

"I was. Then I realized my cousin tried to seduce me and I even made out with her," Ben groaned.

Mara snickered.

"Shut up, Mom."

"I'm not laughing at you," Mara explained. "I'm laughing at the fact that you truly are your father's son."

Luke knew where this was going. "Shut up Mara," he groaned in a warning tone.

"Oh Farmboy. I think it's time for you to tell Ben about you and Leia."

"Shut up Mara," Luke repeated. "The boy has been through enough today. He doesn't need to know what happened between Leia and me before we found out we were twins."

"What happened between you and Aunt Leia before you found out you were twins?" Ben asked genuinely curious.

"They made out a few times," Mara blurted.

"Gross!" Ben moaned.

"We kissed three times. There was never any 'making out'," Luke said, defending himself.

"That's not what Han told me what happened on Hoth," Mara taunted.

"MOOOOM!"

"MARA!"

. . .

"Mara?"

It was late at night, and both Ben and Mara were fast asleep in the bed and chair, respectively, next to Luke.

Like the assassin and mother she was at heart, she woke in an instant.

"What do you need?" Mara whispered back.

"Come here," he said. She then stood up and looked down at him. "Closer," he

instructed. She leaned over him, starting to get annoyed. "Closer," he said again. She glared at him as she moved to be millimetres from his face. He then, even though it hurt, wrapped his arms around her. She was then home.

Epilogue

Luke looked out of the window at the setting sun over the Coruscanti skyline. He reflected on the past few months. Personally, he was thankful for the coma. It made him appreciate both Mara and Ben more than even he thought imaginable. He still smiled every time Mara walked into the room and listened intently to Ben every time he blabbed on about something. He was grateful for every time he reached out for Ben's hand or wrapped his arms around Mara. He was thankful for every moment.

"Credit for your thoughts," Mara said as she sat down beside him.

"You'd be wasting your money, Jade. I know you can read my mind."

"It's Jade Skywalker," she reminded him. "Are you almost ready to go? You are the guest of honour." Ashlana Tano was opening her own rehabilitation center for veterans, for both Jedi and non-Force-sensitives alike and she was naming it after her grandmother.

"If I must," Luke sighed.

Mara chuckled. "Ever the humble farmboy, aren't you Skywalker?"

He rolled his eyes. "I only agreed to this because Ben is taking Tegwen and I want to annoy both Ben and Tegwen's father."

Mara powered up his hoverchair.

"You go easy on poor Tycho. Your son is dating his little girl," Mara said. "Besides, it's my job to annoy them." Ben had started dating Tegwen Celchu, daughter of Tycho and Winter Celchu, a few weeks after the 'Veri incident'. Veri and her father were safely locked away. Tegwen, much like Ben, had been a blessing late in her mother's childbearing years and had her father wrapped around her pinkie ever since her birth. Although all parents like annoying each-other, Mara, Luke, Winter and Tycho couldn't be happier. "Besides, you have another stem cell injection tomorrow. The doctors want you rested."

Before they got to the door, Luke blanked out.

"Farmboy?" she asked, concerned.

He slowly drifted out of his vision of the future and grinned like a madman.

"What?" she asked, annoyed slightly.

"It'll take a few years - thank the Force and Skywalker timing - but I'm going to be a grandpapa!" he said, proudly as he wrapped his arms around his beautiful wife.


End file.
